do you know this FAMOUS quotation?

[xfer]

my student claims that this is a FAMOUS QUOTE KNOWN TO ALL:

"Never trust strangers even if it's an old lady"

his grade rides on this. please be honest.

 

[aura]

Old ladies are by far the least trustworthy.

 

[coelacanth_M]

hahaha, who did he say he was quoting?

 

[xfer]

he said it was a POPULAR SAYING!

maybe he meant IN CHINESE?

 

[coelacanth_M]

maybe his mother?
my father's favorite made-up saying is "baka to kichigai wo aite ni shinai!!" which he says in an extremely angry japanese voice and a deep scowl (and it's always addressed to one of this family members, followed by a slam of the door). it means, "i don't tolerate/acknowledge the existence of idiots and crazies!" and since he's been saying it as far back as i can remember, i consider it a valid quote!

 

[aura]

Maybe he thinks or has been raised to think that all old ladies are supposed to be nice people, and has just re-worked "Never trust strangers even they are nice," which I would guess is a bit more common.

 

[Phrozenspite]

I haven't heard that exact wording but there are a lot of bizarre sayings about looks being deceiving...

 

[mindspell]

no

 

[Helm]

I think you should give this student back his cellphone

 

[NAD]

sounds like Monty Python.

then again, i'm drunk, and watching Holy Grail. pretty much everything sounds like MP right now, including the gas bomb i just left behind my person.

i'm no help. i'm sorry.

 

[xfer]

I personally think he is taking a well-known idea (not trusting strangers) and creating some kind of vaguely-remembered, maybe-not-really-remembered-at-all "popular saying" out of it, and since he's writing a paper about Roald Dahl's "The Landlady" which features a creepy old woman as the antagonist, he added in the "even an old lady" part.

 

[gekko]

Yeah I think I would agree with that assessment, I've never heard that phrase.

 

[BigFakeSmile]

hey but isnt there an urban legend about someone doing a favor for a nice old lady, like giving her a ride, and then noticing her big old MAN HANDS cuz it was a dude and he killed them? (pronoun error on purpose to avoid saying her or him)

 

[xfer]

attn: Amanda and others

is this true?

"Sigmund Freud once said, 'Everyone is born evil.'"

Freud may or may not have expressed that sentiment but I don't recall him using that exact phrase anywhere and I don't see it on Google. I think this is another Chinese-boy made-up quotation.

 

[FuSoYa]

I think I remember having a similar assignment and totally making up a quotation. Kids know what they're doing!

 

[inkybmistro]

I don't understand why his grade rides on this.

 

[xfer]

well not like his SEMESTER grade, but the grade for his essay is partially dependent on whether he went on the Internet and found a really good quotation and incorporated it into his essay (like the one kid who found a neat Montaigne quotation) or just made some shit up and figured I wouldn't know that Nelson Mandela didn't say "Injustice sucks" or something.

 

[mindspell]

They made it up, act as such but mention that you are willing to hear their plea if they can substantiate their claim from a legitimate source.

 

[xfer]

I think part of it is that they don't understand (despite my instruction) that a quotation is EXACTLY what someone said, not the gist of what they might have said.

 

[BodyRemover]

one way or another, using that quote is just stupid.

who'd trust a creepy old lady?