Saturday, January 26, 2008

A phrase to live by

Last night I caught part of Terry Gross's interview with William Maxwell. In it, Gross asked Maxwell (who was 83 at the time of the interview in 1995) if he tries to "keep up," whether with the latest gadgets or pop culture or what have you. Maxwell responded that his colleague at the New Yorker, Joseph Mitchell, liked to use a phrase the Mennonites use when confronted with some new gadget or piece of news from mainstream culture:

"That does not speak to my condition."

Not a bad phrase to have handy, I thought to myself.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love that response. Wow! It's perfect. I want to remember that. (How did I miss that?)

Anonymous said...

Yes, that is one cool response. Got to use it so I remember it.

Paul D. said...

Since I am sick today I just took the time to listen to it. Very nice interview, Terry Gross always does a great job of asking the right questions.