# This is that and that is this.. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 22, 2009, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-that-and-that-is-this/493952 "2009-04-22T07:11:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-that-and-that-is-this/493952/21 "2009-04-24T15:32:11Z")
To comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. (Apparently originated by [Finley Peter Dunne](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finley_Peter_Dunne)) > [@](#): > > As a journalist in the age of “muckraking journalism”, Dunne was aware of the power of institutions, including his own. Writing as Dooley, Dunne once wrote the following passage cautioning against the power of the newspapers themselves: > > “Th newspaper does ivrything f’r us. It runs th’ polis foorce an’ th’ banks, commands th’ milishy, controls th’ ligislachure, baptizes th’ young, marries th’ foolish, comforts th’ afflicted, afflicts th’ comfortable, buries th’ dead an’ roasts thim aftherward”. > > From which, somewhat ironically, journalism took only a few lines as their own and stood these up as their raison d’etre. Specifically, “The business of a newspaper is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable”. The expression has been borrowed and altered in many ways over the years. Clare Booth Luce employed a variation of it in a memorable tribute to Eleanor Roosevelt. Several religious leaders (including one Archbishop of Canterbury) have called it the goal of religion. A version showed up in a memorable line delivered by Gene Kelly in a great newspaper movie, Stanley Kramer’s 1960 film, Inherit the Wind. Kelly (E.K. Hornbeck) says, “Mr. Brady, it is the duty of a newspaper to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable”. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-that-and-that-is-this/493952/22 "2009-04-24T15:36:22Z")
Sharing a drink called lonliness is better than drinking alone–Billy Joel (paraphrased) ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-that-and-that-is-this/493952/23 "2009-04-24T15:45:37Z")
A good man is hard to find. (traditional) A hard man is good to find. (Mae West) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-that-and-that-is-this/493952/24 "2009-04-24T17:53:43Z")
“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” - JFK ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-that-and-that-is-this/493952/25 "2009-04-24T18:13:21Z")
The odds are good, but the goods are odd. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-that-and-that-is-this/493952/26 "2009-04-24T18:16:56Z")
If you don’t work your program, your program won’t work. (in regards to self-help programs such as AA) Oh, almost forgot! “I went home at 2 with a 10, woke up at 10 with a 2” 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-that-and-that-is-this/493952/27 "2009-04-24T19:24:23Z")
> [@glee](#): > > A good man is hard to find. (traditional) > > A hard man is good to find. (Mae West) “I believe that it’s better to be looked over than it is to be overlooked.” “It’s not the men in my life that count, it’s the life in my men.” ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-that-and-that-is-this/493952/28 "2009-04-24T20:22:27Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > **cmyk** , I’ve never heard that “frontal lobotomy” country song - I think Dorothy Parker coined that phrase. Maybe Elendil’s Heir was thinking of “Existential Blues” by Tom “T Bone” Stankus, a longtime staple of the Dr. Demento show? That line pops up in that song. Oh, and I’ll add to the list: “When the going gets tough, the tough gets going” and “You can take the X out of Ybut you can’t take the Y out of X” as in - “You can take the man out of Jersey, but you can’t take the Jersey out of the man.” ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-that-and-that-is-this/493952/29 "2009-04-25T02:58:16Z")
Broad generalization, I know, but heard in several different forms over the years: Men use love to get sex, while women use sex to get love. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-that-and-that-is-this/493952/30 "2009-04-25T05:41:23Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > The general term for this is **chiasmus**. Wikipedia defines that as "…the figure of speech in which two or more clauses are related to each other through a reversal of structures in order to make a larger point; that is, the clauses display inverted parallelism. FYI, the term comes from the Greek letter _chi_, which we know better as X. Note the connection between the letter form and the meaning. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-that-and-that-is-this/493952/31 "2009-04-25T14:19:46Z")
“Winners never quit, and quitters never win.” “Love begets love, and vice-versa.” 😉 ---
**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:** [April 26, 2009, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-that-and-that-is-this/493952/32 "2009-04-26T00:33:02Z")
Dorothy Parker: “Too fucking busy, and vice versa.” > **[Antimetabole](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimetabole)** > > In rhetoric, antimetabole (/æntɪməˈtæbəliː/ AN-ti-mə-TAB-ə-lee) is the repetition of words in successive clauses, but in transposed order; for example, "I know what I like, and I like what I know". It is related to, and sometimes considered a special case of, chiasmus. > An antimetabole can be predictive, because it is easy to reverse the terms. It may trigger deeper reflection than merely stating one half of the line. > It is derived from the Greek ἀντιμεταβολή (antimetabolḗ), from ἀντί (antí, 'ag... ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2009, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-that-and-that-is-this/493952/33 "2009-04-26T01:13:04Z")
Here’s one I recall (from a forgotten source): > [@](#): > > Sir: I have read your manuscript and I find it both original and good. > Unfortunately, the parts that are good are not original, and the parts that are original are not good. ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2009, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-that-and-that-is-this/493952/34 "2009-04-26T04:28:11Z")
An old saying in the Soviet Union about the two major government news sources; Tass (which means “truth”) and Izvestia, (which means "news’): “There is no truth in Izvestia and no news in Pravda”. ---
**Author:** ![Debon\_Err](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ea924/32.png) [@Debon\_Err](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Debon_Err)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2009, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-that-and-that-is-this/493952/35 "2009-04-26T05:22:21Z")
That that is, is. That that is not, is not. Is not that it? It is. ---
**Author:** ![Debon\_Err](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ea924/32.png) [@Debon\_Err](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Debon_Err)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2009, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-that-and-that-is-this/493952/36 "2009-04-26T06:06:49Z")
To quote Greg The Bunny: Gil: “I never let sex get in the way when I’m out for blood.” Susan: “That’s funny, it’s usually the other way around for me.” :eek: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-that-and-that-is-this/493952.md?page=1)