The Root Beer Blog

November 23, 2003

Uninspired

Well, I've been a little unmotivated lately. For those of you who listen to too much Rush Limbaugh, click here for a definition of "unmotivated."

But I found two quotes today, from just after the Presidential election of 1892, that seemed apropos of the 2000 election, so I thought I'd post them in the hopes of creating the illusion that I'm well-read and studious, which illusion I ruin--before any possibility of creation--by describing my intentions in an unnecessarily-long (and yet not technically run-on) sentence that displays sundry punctuation marks; should there be any question, I could have rewritten this sentence to eliminate the punctuation hoop-leaping it requires, and yet, had I done so, I could not have relayed this piece of information: the interrobang, an exclamation point (!) laid over a question mark (?) to form a single, new punctuation character, was invented by Martin Speckter in 1962, but never caught on to join its relatives in the respected "standard punctuation" canon. Sad.

Quote One:

"While we find in our triumph a result of popular intelligence which we have aroused, and a consequence of popular vigilance which we have stimulated, let us not for a moment forget that our accession to power will find neither this intelligence nor this vigilance dead or slumbering. We are thus brought face to face with the reflection that if we are not to be tormented by the spirits which we have ourselves called up, we must hear, above victorious shouts, the call of our fellow countrymen to public duty, and must put on a garb befitting public servants."

--Election Winner Grover Cleveland (Democrat), 11/8/1892

Quote Two:

"Our party has not made its advent too soon. Its mission is to restore to our government its original and only legitimate function, which has been well nigh lost by non-use, that of assuring to all its citizens--the weak as well as the mighty--the unmolested enjoyment of their inalienable rights."

--Third-Party Candidate James V. Weaver (Populist), 11/16/1892

Make of them what you will. If you make word salad, I like blue cheese dressing.

Subtext.

Posted by Chris at November 23, 2003 08:41 PM | TrackBack