On November 3, 1969, President Richard M. Nixon (1913–1994) made a televised address to the nation about the war in Vietnam that popularized one of the most famous political phrases of the 20th century: “the silent majority.”
“Who’s on first?” — Abbott & Costello’s famous baseball sketch
Bud Abbott (1895-1974) and Lou Costello (1906-1959)—the comedy team known as Abbot & Costello—performed many versions of their legendary “Who’s on first?” routine in vaudeville and burlesque stage appearances, on…
“Not fade away…”
On October 27, 1957, American Rockabilly and rock music pioneer Buddy Holly and his band the Crickets released their second 45 rpm single, as a follow-up to their first smash hit “Peggy Sue.” This…
Is Nathan Hale’s legendary line “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country” a true quote, a misquote or pure fiction?
On September 22, 1776, during the Revolutionary War, a former school teacher named Nathan Hale was hanged by the British for being a rebel spy. According to legend, Hale uttered…
“Live fast, die young and have [or leave] a good-looking corpse!”
The saying “Live fast, die young and have a good-looking corpse!” is often associated with actor James Dean. Dean didn’t say it as a line in any of his own…
Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable…
Every once in a while, I like to do a “guest post” here, using something I previously posted on my other quotation blog, QuoteCounterquote.com. I recently heard some news commentator…
“Any man who hates dogs and babies can’t be all bad.”
To paraphrase Firesign Theatre, everything most people know about some famous quotations is wrong. A notable example is the famous line “Any man who hates dogs and babies can’t be…
How a political backlash turned “a grand old rag” into “a Grand Old Flag”…
On January 19, 1906, American composer, playwright and performer George M. Cohan copyrighted a new song he’d written titled “You’re a Grand Old Rag.” It was one of the songs…
Origins of the terms “massive retaliation” and “brinkmanship”…
A while back I noticed a news story that said: “North Korean missile tests signal return to brinkmanship.” It made me decide to look up the origin of that term.…
“Greed is all right” — the forerunner of “Greed is good”
Wall Street whiz Ivan Boesky was riding high in 1986. During the early 1980s, he’d made hundreds of millions of dollars trading stocks, doing real estate deals and masterminding leverage…