# Famous First Words **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 1, 2000, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588 "2000-02-01T08:14:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2000, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/141 "2000-02-03T03:35:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by Fretful Porpentine: > **FP9: _Here beginneth auspiciously the first part of this work. Question the first._ Whether the belief that there are such beings as witches is so essential a part of the Catholic faith that obstinately to maintain the opposite opinion manifestly savours of heresy.** I think that’s _Malleus Maleficarum_ by Kramer and Sprenger. * * * But where were the Spiders? ---
**Author:** ![neuro-trash\_grrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3ab097/32.png) [@neuro-trash\_grrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neuro-trash_grrrl)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2000, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/142 "2000-02-03T03:44:00Z")
Damn-_nation!!!_ I went and scoured my library for good opening lines, and come back only to find that half of them were used while I was gone. Oh, well. Here’s what’s left. If any of these have been used already, tell me, then run. NTG2: The year 1866 was marked by a strange event, an unexplainabe occurence which is undoubtedly still fresh in everyone’s memory. NTG3: We are at rest five miles beyond the front. NTG4: In my younger and more vulnerable years, my father gave me some advice that I’ve beem turning over in my mind ever since. “Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” NTG5: One minute, it was Ohio winter, with doors closed, windows locked, the panes blind with frost, icicles fringing every roof, children skiinf on slopes, housewives lumbering like great black bears in their furs along the icy streets. NTG6: The Nellie, a cruising yawl, swung to her anchor without a flutter of the sails, and was at rest. NTG7: “To be born again” sang (one of the main characters) tumbling from the heavens, “first you have to die”. * * * An infinite number of rednecks in an infinite number of pickup trucks shooting an infinite number of shotguns at an infinite number of road signs will eventually produce all the world’s great works of literature in Braille. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2000, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/143 "2000-02-03T03:56:00Z")
Here’s one: “The human race, to which so many of my readers belong, has been playing at children’s games from the beginning, and will probably do it till the end, which is a nuisance for the few people who grow up. And one of the games to which it is most attached is called ‘Keep to-morrow dark,’ and which is also named (by the rustics in Shropshire, I have no doubt) ‘Cheat the Prophet.’ The players listen very carefully and respectfully to all that the clever men have to say about what is to happen in the next generation. The players then wait till all the clever men are dead, and bury them nicely. Then they go and do something else. That is all. For a race of simple tastes, however, it is great fun.” * * * But where were the Spiders? ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2000, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/144 "2000-02-03T04:00:00Z")
Da Ace - Ubik it is. Took me so long to find my copy, so I could do that one. Neat book. Dick was an … interesting fella. * * * _Eschew Obfuscation_ ---
**Author:** ![Kilgore\_Trout\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6de8d8/32.png) [@Kilgore\_Trout\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilgore_Trout_1)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2000, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/145 "2000-02-03T04:14:00Z")
here are a few of my favourites. aa) Call me Jonah. My parents did, or nearly did. They called me John. bb) What’s it going to be then, eh? cc) This is a tale of a meeting of two lonesome, skinny, fairly old white men on a planet which was dying fast. dd) The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel. ee) To the as-of-yet unborn, to all innocent wisps of undifferentiated nothingness: Watch out for life. ff) A sum of money is a leading character in this tale about people, just as a sum of honey might properly be a leading character in a tale about bees. and who knows where my sig line is from? * * * _what is essential is invisible to the eye -the fox_ ---
**Author:** ![Demo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demo/32/8472_2.png) [@Demo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Demo)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2000, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/146 "2000-02-03T04:59:00Z")
bb) A Clockwork Orange- Anthony Burgess sig) The Little Prince- Antoine De Saint Exubery ---
**Author:** ![Sylence](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b19c9b/32.png) [@Sylence](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sylence)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2000, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/147 "2000-02-03T05:36:00Z")
NTG5: Ray Bradbury, _The Martian Chronicles_. – Sylence * * * If a bird doesn’t sing, I’ll wait until it sings. - Tokugawa Ieyasu ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2000, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/148 "2000-02-03T05:52:00Z")
> [@](#): > > SmickD: > I know it! It’s the beginning to _The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted_ by Harry Harrison. > > Man I looove that book. ## Right. And agreed, the best in that series. “You can observe a lot just by watching.” – Yogi Berra ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2000, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/149 "2000-02-03T06:09:00Z")
> [@](#): > > neuro-trash grrrl: > > NTG3: We are at rest five miles beyond the front. All Quiet On The Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque ---
**Author:** ![TripleAnt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e19adc/32.png) [@TripleAnt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TripleAnt)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2000, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/150 "2000-02-03T06:47:00Z")
[QUOTE] Originally posted by neuro-trash grrrl: NTG4: In my younger and more vulnerable years, my father gave me some advice that I’ve beem turning over in my mind ever since. “Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald * * * “The idea of a walk-in closet sounds frightening. If I’m ever sittin’ at home and a closet walks in, I’m gettin’ outta there.” ~George Carlin ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2000, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/151 "2000-02-03T07:30:00Z")
**neuro-trash grrrl** NTG7: _“To be born again” sang (one of the main characters) tumbling from the heavens, “first you have to die”._ Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses (main character = Gibreel Farishta) **Kilgore Trout** aa), bb) and dd) from your list were already posted. aa) = MTS3 (on page 1), Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle. bb) = posted by Mad Poet on p.1, William Gibson, Neuromancer. **cher3** , You’re right on AW6 being Agatha Christie, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. **neuro-trash grrrl** NTG7: _“To be born again” sang (one of the main characters) tumbling from the heavens, “first you have to die”._ Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses (main character = Gibreel Farishta) **Kilgore Trout** aa), bb) and dd) from your list were already posted. aa) = MTS3 (on page 1), Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle. bb) = posted by Mad Poet on p.1, William Gibson, Neuromancer. **cher3** , You’re right on AW6 being Agatha Christie, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2000, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/152 "2000-02-03T07:50:00Z")
::Yawn:: More from me. 🙂 T8 (kind of a gimme): ‘All children, except one, grow up.’ T9: > [@](#): > > “Just the place for a S[Deleted]!” the Bellman cried, > As he landed his crew with care; > Supporting each man on the top of the tide > By a finger entwined in his hair. T10: ‘One thing was certain, that the white kitten had had nothing to do with it: – it was the black kitten’s fault entirely.’ T11: ‘An hour before sunset, on the evening of a day in the beginning of October, 1815, a man travelling afoot entered the little town of D----.’ T12: ‘Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically.’ T13: ‘On the first Monday of the month of April, 1625, the bourg, of Meung, in which the author of the ‘Romance of the Rose’ was born, appeared to be in as perfect a state of revolution as if the Huguenots had just made a second Rochelle of it.’ T14 (I’m in an evil mood): > [@](#): > > Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote > The droghte of March hath perced to the > roote, > And bathed every veyne in swich licour, > Of which vertu engendred is the flour; * * * _Eschew Obfuscation_ ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2000, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/153 "2000-02-03T07:56:00Z")
T8 (kind of a gimme): ‘All children, except one, grow up.’ **Peter Pan, Barrie** ## T9: quote: “Just the place for a S[Deleted]!” the Bellman cried, As he landed his crew with care; Supporting each man on the top of the tide By a finger entwined in his hair. * * * **Hunting of the Snark, Carroll** ## T14 (I’m in an evil mood): quote: Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote The droghte of March hath perced to the roote, And bathed every veyne in swich licour, Of which vertu engendred is the flour; * * * **Canterbury Tales, Chaucer** * * * But where were the Spiders? ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2000, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/154 "2000-02-03T08:05:00Z")
Congrats, zystardist. 100% correct on all 3. * * * _Eschew Obfuscation_ ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2000, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/155 "2000-02-03T08:08:00Z")
Congratulations _zgystardst_, too. Blah. Need sleep. ---
**Author:** ![Globe-trotter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cab0a1/32.png) [@Globe-trotter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Globe-trotter)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2000, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/156 "2000-02-03T11:39:00Z")
Tengu : T13: 'On the first Monday of the month of April, 1625, the bourg, of Meung, in which the author of the ‘Romance of the Rose’ was born, appeared to be in as perfect a state of revolution as if the Huguenots had just made a second Rochelle of it. - The Three Muskateers, Alexandre Dumas père ---
**Author:** ![TomH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/90db22/32.png) [@TomH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TomH)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2000, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/157 "2000-02-03T13:10:00Z")
I can’t work out what has and hasn’t been answered now, so I’ll confine my self to this page: T10: “One thing was certain, that the white kitten had had nothing to do with it: – it was the black kitten’s fault entirely.” _Through the Looking Glass_, Lewis Carroll. T11: “An hour before sunset, on the evening of a day in the beginning of October, 1815, a man travelling afoot entered the little town of D----.” My first instinct was to say _Germinal_, as it starts (and ends) with the stranger approaching the town at sunset or sunrise, but I’m 99% sure that Zola gives the name of the town (which eludes me for the moment). So if the “D----“ is part of the quote and not the editing out of a giveaway clue, I’ll guess that it’s from _Les Miserables_ again, but it’s not the opening line of the book, is it? T12: “Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically.” _Lady Chatterley’s Lover_, D H Lawrence. ---
**Author:** ![Pixoid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Pixoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixoid)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2000, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/158 "2000-02-03T13:44:00Z")
I don’t look for a little bit, and this thing’s exploded! Well, nobody’s answered my opener, so I’ll flesh it out a bit: Pix1.a: “I’ve watched through his eyes, I’ve listened through his ears, and I tell you he’s the one. Or at least as close as we’re going to get.” * * * You’ve got to be proud when you can’t even think of a category to nominate yourself in… [Vote in the SDMB Elections!](http://fathom.org/teemingmillions/vote.adp) ---
**Author:** ![G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c67d28/32.png) [@G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G.B.H.Hornswoggler)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2000, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/159 "2000-02-03T14:07:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by aseymayo: > \*\*I’m still waiting to hear where this one cited by Da Ace comes from: > “In five years, the penis will be obsolete,” said the salesman… > > My first thought was _Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?_, but that may be just because the author’s name is Dick.\*\* ## OK, I didn’t really expect anyone to get this, so we’re into big hint time. It’s a science fiction novel published in 1992 by J\_\_\_ V\_\_\_ and the title is S\_\_\_\_ B\_\_\_\_. Anyone care to take a stab now? …but when you get blue, and you’ve lost all your dreams, there’s nothing like a campfire and a can of beans! ---
**Author:** ![pluto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f08c70/32.png) [@pluto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pluto)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2000, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/160 "2000-02-03T14:30:00Z")
Wow! I’m impressed with the quality and diversity of the clues and the (typical) agility with which they are deciphered. I’m not having much luck lately but I do know this one: > [@](#): > > FP10 (For you, pluto): There were crimson roses on the bench; they looked like splashes of blood. _Strong Poison_ by Dorothy L. Sayers. (Although I probably would have missed it without the personal note!) It’s the first of the Peter Wimsey books that includes Harriet Vane. _Busman’s Honeymoon_, already cited above, is the last. (Although there was a later short story involving Lord and Lady Peter and their children.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588.md?page=9)