<VV> Re: Voltaire-cooled -- LONG, NO CORVAIR -- Skip if you're sick of the anonymous issue

[Steven J. Serenska]

John, Hank:

>John
>Correct!! And Voltaire was French as well....there's a dose of irony for
>you.......
>
>HANK
>
Not so fast, mon ami, the author of the line was Evelyn Beatrice Hall.  
She included it in a 1906 book *about* Voltaire and was using the phrase 
to characterize Voltaire's outlook on censorship.  Voltaire wrote a few 
lines that were vaguely similar, but that particular line, as written 
and widely quoted, was Hall's.

If you think I'm all wet on this, please provide a citation from the 
Voltaire work in which the original line appeared.  One of my high 
school English teachers was a stickler on stuff like this...he once 
stapled a paperback copy of Voltaire's Candide to a paper I had written, 
challenging me to use it to support a few "facts" I had included in my 
paper.  His words: "Citation, please, Mr. Serenska!" ring in my ears to 
this day.  FWIW, a pretty decent analysis of the issue can be found at: 
http://www.classroomtools.com/voltaire.htm

Since I'm newly fond of another great line, "Yes, but how does this help 
me fix my Corvair?" (someone wrote this on VV a few days ago), Ill stop 
here.  I am writing to Hank, John, and Mark offline concerning a few 
comments on the CORSA Communique anonymity issue.  They'll let me know 
if they think those thoughts should be brought back here or over to VV-Talk.

Steven "lots of things ringing in his ears" Serenska
'65 Monza Convertible, driven to work today
'66 Corsa Coupe, waiting patiently