A Thoughtless Word
In a country church of a small village an altar boy serving the priest at Sunday mass accidentally dropped the cruet of wine. The village priest struck the altar boy sharply on the cheek and in a gruff voice shouted: “Leave the altar and don’t come back!” That boy became Tito, the Communist leader. In the cathedral of a large city, an altar boy serving the bishop at Sunday Mass accidentally dropped the cruet of wine. With a warm twinkle in his eyes, the bishop gently whispered: “Someday you will be a priest.” That boy grew up to become Archbishop Fulton Sheen. Oh, the power of words, be they written or spoken!
Power of the Written Word
A few years ago we visited the castle of Elsinore of Denmark. The guide reminded us that around AD 1200, the king of Pomerania built Elsinore Castle and also another fortified castle across the Skagerrak Channel in what is now Sweden. He thought that with these two bastions, one on each side of the channel, he could control entrance to the heart of Europe. The castle at Elsinore is in decay, the one in Sweden is gone, the Pomeranian king’s name is forgotten—at least by me. But on the day of my visit, tourist busses were lined up for blocks as they are every day, bringing visitors to that spot. Why? Because one William Shakespeare chose Elsinore as the locale of his drama, Hamlet. The power of the pen outlasts the power of the sword. Sparta had the strongest army in ancient Greece, but its site is rubble. Athens with its Parthenon and its Mars Hill still draws millions of awe-inspired visitors. –Ralph Sockman
Words, Words, Words
Dr. Wilfred Funk, the well-known dictionary publisher, was asked to select the ten most expressive words in the English language. Here is the list:
- the most bitter word—alone
- the most tragic—death
- the most revered—mother
- the most beautiful—love
- the most cruel—revenge
- the most peaceful—tranquil
- the most saddest—forgotten
- the warmest—friendship
- the coldest—no
- the most comforting—faith
Samuel Goldwyn as Communicator
Stephen Birmingham’s book, The Rest of Us, chronicles the story of the Eastern European Jews, particularly the Russian Jews, who came to America through New York between 1882 and 1915 in flight from the pogroms of Czarist Russia. One of the characters he tells about is film producer Sam Goldwyn, famous for his fractured English sayings that were widely quoted in his day. Here are a few of them:
“Let me sum it up for you in two words—im possible!”
“Let me pinpoint for you the approximate date.”
“Include me out.”
“A verbal contract isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.”
“Every Tom, Dick, and Harry is named John.”
Edna Ferber told him she was writing her autobiography. He asked her, “What’s it about?”
When filming Romeo and Juliet was proposed to him, Goldwyn liked the story by wondered if it couldn’t have a happy ending. Jokingly, an associate said, “I don’t think Bill Shakespeare would like that, Sam.” Goldwyn replied, “Pay him off!”