Long before dogged news coverage of the Watergate scandal helped force Richard M. Nixon to resign as President in 1974, he disliked the press. In fact, throughout his long political…
“Enquiring minds want to know.” No use in inquiring why.
There’s a tipping point at which a famous phrase becomes a cliché. The well known ad slogan for The National Enquirer supermarket tabloid – “Enquiring minds want to know” –…
OCTOBER 16 – Castro said “History will absolve me,” but it doesn’t seem likely
On October 16, 1953, Fidel Castro made a four-hour speech, but it wasn’t one of his long stem-winders to his followers. It was a speech he gave as a prisoner,…
OCTOBER 9 – The Greeks had a phrase for it: “Know thyself.”
On October 9th in the year 28 B.C., the Temple of Apollo at Delphi was dedicated. An inscription on the temple said: “Gnothi seauton.” In English, that’s the famous quotation…
SEPTEMBER 27 – Remember when we used to “Fly the friendly skies?”
Several airline advertising slogans have become memes in our culture even though the airlines that used them no longer exist. For example… “It’s the only way to fly!” – The…
SEPTEMBER 22 – “Slowly I turned…”
September 22 is the anniversary of the most widely known version of an old vaudeville routine – the “Slowly I turned” shtick. In this classic comedy bit, the name of…
SEPTEMBER 18 – Was Lincoln a Great Emancipator or a Great Obfuscator?
An Abraham Lincoln quotation that is often noted in modern, clear-eyed accounts of his life comes from one of his debates with Stephen Douglas, during their 1858 contest for an…
“Danger, Will Robinson!”
In addition to being a fan of old TV westerns, like Have Gun – Will Travel, I’m also a fan of vintage science fiction shows. Even the bad ones, if…
SEPTEMBER 11 – They’ll never take our freedom (to rewrite history)
If you saw the 1995 movie Braveheart, you almost surely remember star Mel Gibson in his blue-painted face yelling the famous line “They may take our lives, but they’ll never…