Just Sayin...

Most of us are now aware that some of the quotes attributed to artists and others are fictitious. They simply weren’t said. For example Humphrey Bogart never said “Play it again Sam” in Casablanca; he said “Play it” that is all. My favourite actor Jimmy Cagney never said “You dirty rat” in White Heat or any other of his wonderful films. As Oscar Wilde said of something James Whistler said, “I wish I had said that.” They may wish they said it, but they didn’t. But what interests me is what was not said or at least reported after famous quotes. Winston Churchill after his famous “We shall fight ‘em on the beaches” speech is reputed to have turned to his BBC sound technician and said, “But I don’t know with what, we don’t have any bloody weapons.” Topically Neil Armstrong was reputed to have said of his “One small step …” “Well, actually it wasn’t that small a step. It was quite a distance down to the surface.” So, the world has lost the last of its great exploratory heroes of the 20th Century; the only one I think to match Armstrong was our own Sir Edmund and it is perhaps no coincidence that both men were among the most self-effacing one could meet. Perhaps it is that very fact that added to the reverence in which they are held. They are much revered for their famous acts and famous words. But here is something that you may not know. Neil Armstrong’s words were written for him by a NASA speech-writer. Nothing wrong with that and I wouldn’t want to diminish their effect for that. But Sir Edmund Hillary’s almost as famous statement of fact after his Everest climb “We knocked the bugger off” was all his. Simple, succinct, accurate. Very Hillary, but also very Kiwi. That one statement, by Sir Edmund, did a lot of summing up and it still resonates today. Just sayin… If you are at all interested, James Whistler’s riposte to that great plagiarist Oscar Wilde’s “I wish I had said that” was “You will Oscar, you will.” I wish I had said that.