pynchon-l-digest V2 #3997

[David Christensen]

Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2004 11:14:52 -0700 (PDT)
From: Dave Monroe <monropolitan at yahoo.com>
Subject: The Witty Professor

The Witty Professor: Sidney Morgenbesser

Aug. 2, 2004

Columbia philosophy professor Sidney Morgenbesser died
Sunday morning. Born in 1921, Morganbesser was famous
for his wit. One well-remembered story about him
regards an Oxford philosopher giving a speech at
Columbia University 20 years ago. When the don said
that in most languages two negatives make a positive,
but in no language do two positives make a negative,
Morganbesser refuted the point by waving his hand
dismissively and saying, "Yeah, Yeah." ...

Nice biting wit and sarcasm. A friend of mine used to simply say "good".
When confronted with a vexing piece of, well shite, that he disagreed with,
of course delivered with the correct inflection of disdain.. But "good,
good" seems to change the effect entirely. My girlfriend uses "good, good"
when she is an upbeat mood bordering on just better than good. The english
language is a marvel is it not.

Then again good with a slight pause in between and an emphasis on the second
good might work. As in "good, yeah, good!!!!"

I am in for a blitz on GR by the way.