Hamish Reid writes:

Actually San Francisco is closer -- remember Gertrude Stein's famous
description of Oakland: "there's no there, there".

It's a pity that the real dirt on her quote was that she was just
bemoaning the fact that where she'd grown up was no longer there
(meaning it had been demolished, rather than there was nothing in
Oaktown), but hey, that really spoils a nice story :-).

I'm not at all surprised. It's amazing how many famous quotations are
learned of context: "a little learning is a dangerous thing" (Pope
goes on to suggest a *lot* of learning), "good fences make good
neighbours" (Frost goes on to say that this doesn't make sense unless
livestock is involved), etc. etc.


All the best,


David

--
David Megginson, , http://www.megginson.com/