Re: Ask not what your country can do for you


Ron Hardin wrote:
Peter T. Daniels wrote:
Letterman plays it almost every night in the intro to "Great Moments in
Presidential Speeches."

Right after "The only thing we have to fear--
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--is fear itself."

Sure enough, last night Letterman showed Bush dithering around with the
question "anyone here have three kids? four? you do? hmm, why did I ask
that? Oh! I remember why I asked that!" and it's actually "The only
thing we have to fear is fear
itself."

Or do you have a problem with that one too?

Maybe you've never addressed a crowd.

Do you have examples of this grand ``Ask not'' construction having been
picked up?

I'm not even sure what century it comes from. It rings a little of a Boy's
Book of Maxims from the early 1800s.

Not only are you not a native speaker of English, you have not even had
the most elementary exposure to English literature:

"Send not to know for whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee."

There's a better construction for it nowadays.
On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

On the internet, you broadcast you're a jerk nearly every day.

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