Slashdot Mirror

By July 1980 the remark was being ascribed to the prominent statesman Winston Churchill. A journal based in London called "Mine and Quarry" of the Minerals Engineering Society reported on a speech given by a U.S. Governor at the "International Coal Show" in Chicago:

In his keynote address Governor James R. Thompson of Illinois quoted with evident approval Sir Winston Churchill as saying, "You can depend upon the Americans to do the right thing. But only after they have exhausted every other possibility."

The sentiment is noble, but the saying is not old and it's not Cree. Most likely Greenpeace or someone else tagged it that way to lend it an air of sagacity.

http://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/10/20/last-tree-cut/

I don't get the rape comparison. I can see how some people might consider frisking a violation, but a sexual one? You have some strange turn-ons, dude, er, lady, er, my numerically named friend.

But to bring the thread to a more interesting topic, I thought it was W.C. Fields joke. Turns out somebody has tried to figure out who said that though the conclusion isn't satisfying. I can only hope this "Lord Beaverbrook" also had a physical appearance similar to Fields and Churchhill.

"Golf is a good walk spoiled" -- apparently falsely attributed to Mark Twain. http://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/05/28/golf-good-walk/

(I haven't actually played real golf. I remember "Tin Cup" actually made me want to try it, but I never did.)

That crash left some wondering if the CEO was taking too many risks, considering he is head of a major corporation.

The Graveyards Are Full of Indispensable Men
So no, he was not taking too much risks.

http://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/10/10/spoons-shovels/

At one of our dinners, Milton recalled traveling to an Asian country in the 1960s and visiting a worksite where a new canal was being built. He was shocked to see that, instead of modern tractors and earth movers, the workers had shovels. He asked why there were so few machines. The government bureaucrat explained: "You don’t understand. This is a jobs program." To which Milton replied: "Oh, I thought you were trying to build a canal. If it’s jobs you want, then you should give these workers spoons, not shovels."

"Everybody Talks About the Weather, But Nobody Does Anything About It." Quote investigator did a nice piece on the origins of this phrase.