A correspondence corner for not-so-famous lost words

A correspondence corner for not-so-famous lost words

Burton Caine asks who said, “If the result is absurd, it impeaches the logic upon which it is founded.” He adds, “I cannot find it in Cardozo. Kingston v Chicago & N.W. Ry., Wisconsin Supreme Court, is close but substitutes ‘injustice’ for ‘absurd,’ and that makes all the difference.”

Judith Stix hopes to learn the title and author of a children’s book that ends, she recalls: “And that’s how they could tell the white horse from the black horse.”

Robert McGinnis wonders if anyone has traced the original source of a remark attributed to Mark Hanna: “There are two things that are important in politics. The first is money, and I can’t remember what the second one is.” The Macmillan Dictionary of Political Quotations (1993), he reports, “did not give a source. The New York Times ran the quote in September 1993. It has been widely repeated since.”

Erik Levin seeks aid in determining “if there is a use of ‘stalk’ in the modern sense of obsessive, unwanted attention prior to John le Carré’s 1968 novel A Small Town in Germany: ‘He would never do such a thing. It was not in his nature…. He assured me categorically that he was not...stalking me.’”

Michael Comenetz seeks a source for: “As a man grows older, he comes to know, with gradually increasing astonishment, that he is mortal.”

 

Send inquiries and answers to “Chapter and Verse,” Harvard Magazine, 7 Ware Street, Cambridge 02138, or via e-mail to chapterandverse@harvardmag.com.

You might also like

Padimut at Harvard

A rare Egyptian mummy case is on display at the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East.

Resculpting an Empire, Through Kitchen Scraps

Artists Enzo Camacho and Ami Lien turn a colonial symbol from Cambodia inside out.

Boston Ballet’s Ming Min Hui on Changing Audiences and Timothée Chalamet

The outgoing executive director and Harvard Business School graduate went from dancing The Nutcracker to growing a ballet company.

Most popular

How Philosophy at Harvard Saved Itself

As humanities shrink across higher education, one department is flourishing. Is its success a fluke, or a roadmap?

Graduate Student Union Schedules Strike

The work stoppage will begin October 27, unless a final bargaining session next week yields an agreement.

Harvard Stabilizes Finances With Strong Endowment Returns, Philanthropy

Small operating surplus is dwarfed by reduced federal research support and endowment tax liabilities.

Explore More From Current Issue

Colorful icons representing sleep, fruit, speech, and a mind with a water lily.

Check back soon to take our survey! 

A man with a long beard and formal attire stands next to a chalkboard with an equation.

Two tales of University greats—and an encounter with a Tiger

Delicate green cocoa pods and small white flowers on a tree branch, surrounded by soft greenery.

Harvard researchers investigate climate’s impact on cocoa crops, innovations in nasal vaccines, and links between pain and skull marrow.