“I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismograph.”
Source: The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968), Ch. 1 : Black Shiny FBI Shoes
The Great Catechism. Second Command (1529)
“I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismograph.”
Source: The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968), Ch. 1 : Black Shiny FBI Shoes
“I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismograph”
On Ken Kesey, in Ch. I : Black Shiny FBI Shoes
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968)
Context: He talks in a soft voice with a country accent, almost a pure country accent, only crackling and rasping and cheese-grated over the two-foot hookup, talking about —
"—there's been no creativity," he is saying, "and I think my value has been to help create the next step. I don't think there will be any movement off the drug scene until there is something else to move to —"
— all in a plain country accent about something — well, to be frank, I didn't know what in the hell it was all about. Sometimes he spoke cryptically, in aphorisms. I told him I had heard he didn't intend to do any more writing. Why? I said.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismograph," he said.
He talked about something called the Acid Test and forms of expression in which there would be no separation between himself and the audience. It would be all one experience, with all the senses opened wide, words, music, lights, sounds, touch —
lightning.
“[Henry, to Rod] "Hell's not a place, Rod, it's something people do to each other."”
Source: The Burning Plain (1997), p.304 (Chapter 23)
“Can Wisdom be put in a silver rod?
Or Love in a golden bowl?”
The Book of Thel, Thel's Motto (1789–1792)
Context: Does the Eagle know what is in the pit?
Or wilt thou go ask the Mole?
Can Wisdom be put in a silver rod?
Or Love in a golden bowl?
Alex Rodriguez Pennington, Bill. (October 1, 2011). Voice of Yankees Draws High Ratings and Many Critics. https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/02/sports/baseball/voice-of-yankees-draws-high-ratings-and-several-critics.html The New York Times.
Specific home run calls
“This is Prince Charles & Camilla. Or, as I like to think of them, Rod Hull & Emu.”
A Brief History of Timewasting, Room 101, The News Quiz
“There is nothynge that more dyspleaseth God,
Than from theyr children to spare the rod.”
Magnificence, A goodly interlude, line 1954 (published c. 1533), reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). Compare: He that spareth the rod hateth his son, Proverbs xiii. 24; They spare the rod and spoyl the child, Ralph Venning, Mysteries and Revelations (second ed.), p. 5. 1649; Spare the rod and spoil the child, Samuel Butler: Hudibras, pt. ii. c. i. l. 843.
“They spare the rod, and spoyle the child.”
Mysteries and Revelations, p. 5. (1649). Compare: "There is nothynge that more dyspleaseth God, Than from theyr children to spare the rod." John Skelton, Magnyfycence, line 1954.
Part I, chapter 2.
Proverbs (1546)
A reference to Labour's election campaign slogan "New Labour, New Britain". http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1551880/General-Sir-Edward-Jones.html Daily Telgraph 1997
1990s