Ten Public Figures Who Have Influenced My Speaking Style

Though few of my associates realize it, my everyday speech is peppered with allusions, and so is my manner of speaking in the classroom and lecture hall. Here are some of the personalities I wish to thank for turns of phrase they have lent me.

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Talk Show Hosts Bob & Doug McKenzie

For the phrases:
“Okay. So…”
“Our topic today is…”
“…eh?”

Comedian & Fashion Expert Joan Rivers

For the phrase:
“Can we talk?”

Staff Announcer William B. Williams

For the phrases:
“Could I just say something?”
“Sammy, may I interject?”

Funnyman Bobby Bittman

For the phrases:
“As a comic…in all seriousness…”
“All seriousness aside…”
“I believe there’s humor in everything.”

Entertainer Lola Heatherton

For the phrase:
“You’re so (adjective), it’s scary!”

Solicitor General Richard Rich

For the phrase, used in his perjurious testimony against Sir Thomas More:
“Or words to that effect.” ¹

News Commentator Emily Litella

For the phrases:
“What’s this I hear about endangered –eces?”
“Never mind.”

Weekend Update Anchorperson Jane Curtin

For the phrase:
“Good night, and have a pleasant tomorrow.”
Also, for never knowing what camera to look at.

TV Hostess Libby Wolfson

For the phrase:
“In the B.C. period…”

Philologist Peter F. Dembowski ²

For the terms:
“la factologie”
“una footanota”
And for the illuminating comment:
“C’est ça, la clarté française. Ils sont éblouis…”

1. A dear friend, MJH, brought home to me the wide applicability of this phrase.[↩]
2. But my debt to this man, my dissertation director of long ago, includes far more, and far more serious, things; not least of which is the researcher’s maxim: “The most important thing to know about a text, is what questions to ask of it.” Or words to that effect.[↩]