Photo: j.o.h.n. walkerEach week, I’ve been inviting readers to submit quotations whose origins they want me to try to trace, using my book, The Yale Book of Quotations, and my more recent research. Here is the latest round.
Travis asked:
Where does the phrase “fog of war” come from, and what was it originally intended to refer to?
The Yale Book of Quotations has the following entry:
“War is the realm of uncertainty; three-quarters of the factors on which action is based are wrapped in a fog of greater or lesser uncertainty.”
Karl von Clausewitz, On War bk. 1, ch. 3 (1832-34). Perhaps the closest Clausewitz comes to using the expression “the fog of war,” which is often attributed to him. Jay M. Shafritz, Words on War, quotes Chevalier Floard, Nouvelles Decouvertes sur la Guerre (1724); “The coup d-oeuil is a gift of God and cannot be acquired; but if professional knowledge does not perfect it, one only sees things imperfectly and in a fog.”
Eric M. Jones asked:
“Ninety-six percent of success is just showing up. …” Woody Allen
Of course, the number is 80% and it is from the film Annie Hall in 1977. My intention in commenting on it was to introduce the notion that numbers in quotes have a way of floating around.
I can’t find anything earlier, so it might be a clever invention of Woody Allen’s, but as pure speculation he may have read “New Dimensions” Robert Silverberg – 1972
‘… ninety-nine percent of life is sheer abstraction….’Only a guess, but the time is about right.
The earliest version found by The Yale Book of Quotations was “Showing up is 80 percent of life,” which appeared in The New York Times, Aug. 21, 1977 (attributed to Allen). I have never seen any reference to this saying being used in Annie Hall; any reader who knows that it is used in that film, please let me know where in the film it occurs.
Do any readers have any other quotations whose origins they would like me to attempt to trace?
and 
. You can also watch it on 
Here is an Annie Hall script link: http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/a/annie-hall-script-screenplay-woody.html
I can’t find anything resembling the quote.
Hey,
Don’t know if this is something that is more universal, but “cool beans” is still a popular phrase here in UK although seems it may have originated in US, which is like cool but a bit, well, beanier.
Urban Dictionary have it from the late 60s/early 70s http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=cool%20beans but also some early 80s show. There’s also a Cheech & Chong reference. Can you clarify?
Matt
Quin: The Ayn Rand quote that you are seeking may not exist. Consider the posting at the website volokh.com by David Bernstein on September 14, 2007:
Rand didn’t much influence my political philosophy, which was about the same before I read her stuff as it is now, but I do give her credit for two things. First, she indirectly persuaded me that caring about the success of strangers on sports teams that happen to carry the name of my city or school is a waste of time.
http://volokh.com/2007/09/14/an-ayn-rand-first/
I do not think that David Bernstein is claiming that any text written by Ayn Rand contains a quote matching the sentence that Bernstein uses. He says that he was “indirectly persuaded”. Maybe you can try to send Bernstein an email and ask him what passage by Ayn Rand led him to compose his blog post.
Rachel : The phrase “rubber meets the sky” was used by “Robert X. Cringely” in an issue of InfoWorld magazine dated October 29, 1990. Cringely was a pseudonym used by a sequence of writers at InfoWorld who specialized in gossip and inside information in the computer industry. The sentence by Cringely does not contain the word “academia”:
Cite: 1990 October 29, “Notes From the Field: OS/2 No Longer Looks Beautiful to Bill Now That He’s Middle Aged” by Robert X. Cringely, Page 122, InfoWorld Media Group, Inc. (Google Books full view)
Yup, we’re at that point where the rubber meets the sky.
http://books.google.com/books?id=DjwEAAAAMBAJ&q=rubber+meets#v=snippet&
A variant of the phrase was also used around 1988 at a conference on communications. The date is inexact because Google only displays a snippet of data. A conference speaker is discussing the launch of a product called Windowshopper.
Cite: Circa 1988, Proceedings of the National Communications Forum, GB Page 131, Volume 42, Issue 1, Professional Education International, Inc. (Google Books snippet view; Not verified on paper; This cite may be inaccurate)
Customers ordered services through Windowshopper. They answered survey questions and said they loved it. Windowshopper had taken off; the rubber had met the sky.
Good luck to you Rachel in further tracing the phrase.
@10–matt “cool beans”
I find this entry in Urban Dictionary compelling:
It might be that simple.
@8–”So you think you are better at googling than we are?”
- J_Reader
Yes.
What is the origin of the term “hand-waving,” referring to empty argumentation? I’ve always associated it with the Star Wars scene where Obi-Wan Kenobi “persuades” the storm troopers that “these aren’t the droids you’re looking for” as he waves his hand, but I suspect the term may predate this.
@14 –Jake, I would have thought this was an alternate definition of the word(s) hand-waving; handwaving; hand waving….but the sources seems to have come from the math, logic, physics, academic stuff….Weird:
The physical review
American Institute of Physics, American … – 1964
… and it was necessary to resort to hand-waving to discuss real scattering energies, …
Notes on the synthesis of form – Page 37
Christopher Alexander – 1964 – 216 pages
But this explanation is vague hand-waving
Popular Science – Apr 1963 – Page 206
Vol. 182, No. 4 – 238 pages – Magazine
Dr. Van Allen laughed; apparently there’s a controversy on that subject right now. “We wish we knew,” he said. “There are various explanations, but they’re what I call hand-waving arguments. You have to talk very fast and wave your …
Adverse possession
Charles C. Callahan – 1961 – 120 pages
Asking this question is likely to evoke what may be described as a “hand waving” answer: It’s all part of the general policy … The difficulty, of course, with this hand-waving answer is that it doesn’t tell us what the policy of …
Eric M. Jones found some fine examples of “hand-waving” in the early 1960s.
Here is an illustration of hand-waving that is both literal and figurative. In the passage below, from a 1942 newspaper article, a booking agent named Sid literally waves his hands. However, the term “hand-waving logic” also appears, and in this case the term “hand-waving” is a non-literal modifier.
Cite: 1942 November 24, Miami News, On The Night Side: Be Careful When Sid White Waves His Hands; Then You Haven’t Got A Chance” by Les Simmonds, Page 8B, Miami, Florida. (Google News archive)
If Sid books an act that lays an egg, when confronted by the irate night club owner his manner at once becomes accusing, mildly bellicose and injured. After a few moments of White’s hand-waving logic the owner feels that perhaps he himself is guilty for the act’s poor showing. Not until Sid and his wildly waving hands depart does the owner catch his breath. Too late.
“Hand-waving” is used as a modifier to refer to empty arguments, but it also sometimes connotes confusion and/or deception.