And a propos of originality (if someone actually said that of the Nobel prize), note that Samuel Johnson wrote to Lord Chesterfield, in 1755: .... Is not a patron, my lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help? .... in response to Chesterfield's belated support for the Dictionary. Fred Kochman On 08/28/2014 09:29 AM, James Propp wrote:
George Bernard Shaw is supposed to have said "Nobel prize money is a life-belt thrown to a swimmer who has already reached the shore in safety."
(Though one should be suspicious of such attributions: it's a relIable principle that if an adage sounds remotely Shavian, then regardless of who actually came up with it, sooner or later somebody will attribute it to Shaw.)
Jim Propp
On Thursday, August 28, 2014, Marc LeBrun <mlb@well.com> wrote:
Discussing what's considered prizeworthy, the politics, the dramas just distracts from the truth that the whole concept of such prizes is bogus.
Pray tell, what problem does awarding them solve?
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