Saturday, June 28, 2008

Quote of the Day (Carlin)

"Have you ever noticed that their stuff is s--t, and your s--t is stuff?"—Comedian George Carlin (1937-2008)
(Not realizing his own powers of prophecy, Monsignor Stanislaus P. Jablonski, dean of discipline at Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx, once noted on a detention slip about one of his teenage charges, George Carlin: “He thinks he’s a comedian.” Amen. He could not be bothered with books, but Carlin’s delight in language and its paradoxes, as illustrated in the one-liner above, was almost Joycean in its relish in wordplay, a typically Celtic delight in inverting sense and overturning shibboleths. The one-liner also conveyed his belief that “By and large, language is a tool for concealing the truth.” I’m afraid that his use of drugs shortened his life, but I thank God—a being, incidentally, whose existence Carlin denied—that we had him around for as long as we did. Rest in peace, George, and may you be greeted with smiles at the pearly gates.)

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