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January 4, 2005
Up With Which
efinition 4 of "WitNit" (in the About section to the right) is a transparent play on a possibly apocryphal statement by Winston Churchill. According to the Oxford Companion to the English Language, Winston Churchill was chided by an editor for ending a sentence in a preposition, to which he replied, “This is the sort of bloody nonsense up with which I will not put.”
I love ending sentences in prepositions. We have to. That's what communication's about. (I also love self-referential sentences like, "This sentence is a !!!! premature punctuator" But that topic is saved for a future post.)
Churchill is well worth investing time studying. For people who want to glimpse parallels between the Chamberlains of yesterday and today, I always recommend the first volume of his six-book history of The Second World War, The Gathering Storm. Amazon.com sells a paperback version.
Juicy quote: "When the situation was manageable it was neglected, and now that it is thoroughly out of hand we apply too late the remedies which then might have effected a cure. There is nothing new in the story. It is as old as the sibylline books. It falls into that long, dismal catalogue of the fruitlessness of experience and the confirmed unteachability of mankind. Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong, these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history." Winston S. Churchill, House of Commons, 12 April 1935
Regarding great speeches, check out the American Rhetoric website. Over 5,000 audio and video speeches are available. You can listen to the top 100 speeches, including the entire Martin Luther King "I Have a Dream" speech. They also have a section on the Rhetoric of 9-11.
*** You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor and you will have war. Winston Churchill's remark after Neville Chamberlain returned from signing the Munich pact with Hitler.
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Posted by witnit at January 4, 2005 1:02 AM
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