“Turning to Gavin, he asked in exasperation: "What the hell is your name anyway?"”
Source: A Soldier Reports (1976), p. 21.
Context: Soon after the war- Jim Gavin told me to our amusement- the commandant of the Air War College, Major General Orvil A. Anderson, introduced him as a guest speaker. Anderson was a pioneer flier and balloonist, later fired from the Air Force by President Truman for preaching preventative war. "We were never more privileged," General Anderson intoned, "than we are today to have this distinguished speaker, one of America's great soldiers, one of the greatest since Lee, Grant, Pershing, a man who is going down in history as a tactician and strategist, one of the great soldiers of all time." Then General Anderson began to slow down. "One of the great soldiers of all time," he repeated. By that time it was apparent he was stalling. "One of the great soldiers of all time," he said again. Turning to Gavin, he asked in exasperation: "What the hell is your name anyway?"
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William Westmoreland 32
United States Army general 1914–2005Related quotes
“What the hell has Hoover got to do with it? Anyway, I had a better year than he did.”
Oft-cited but likely apocryphal variation on Ruth's defense of his Hoover-exceeding salary demands (structurally similar, albeit in bolder, considerably more streamlined fashion, to the contemporaneously reported Ruth quote of January 7, 1930—see above); as quoted in Babe Ruth: The Big Moments of the Big Fellow http://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/12/28/better-year/#return-note-10331-1 (1947) by Tom Meany, p. 139, and reproduced shortly thereafter in several book reviews, most notably an informal review http://www.mediafire.com/view/720jdsq5hh19ar1/Daley%2C%20Arthur.%20Sports%20of%20the%20Times—Something%20About%20the%20Babe.%20The%20New%20York%20Times.%20December%2016%2C%201947.jpg by New York Times columnist Arthur Daley, who would go on to resurrect the quote, with slightly altered wordings, in at least four subsequent columns, including one in August 1948 http://www.mediafire.com/view/yz5mp5zi41v3xln/Daley%2C%20Arthur.%20Sports%20of%20the%20Times—Still%20More%20on%20the%20Babe.%20The%20New%20York%20Times.%20August%2019%2C%201948.jpg and in April 1951 http://www.mediafire.com/view/h3p6wvqdso308pk/Daley%2C%20Arthur.%20Carry%20a%20Bat%20Who%2C%20a%20Ball%20Player%20The%20New%20York%20Times.%20April%2015%2C%201951.%20Section%20VI%2C%20Page%2017..jpg.
Unsourced variants: Hey, I had a better year than he did.
Why not, I had a better year than he did.
I know, but I had a better year than Hoover.
“What the hell is wrong with you?" he asked.
It was a good question.”
Source: 13 Little Blue Envelopes
“What I actually want to call you is a hell of a lot more unprintable than your name”
Source: City of Ashes
Journals and Papers X4A 435
1840s, The Journals of Søren Kierkegaard, 1840s
“You won’t burn in hell. But be nice anyway.”