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June 24th, 2016 
Awake Goy Today the political jibes and satire are aimed at the bank accounts of crooked politicians. Not so long ago there was a richness of language sadly that is missing from today’s vocabulary. Journalists too could hold their own in any bout of verbal jousting.
King’s toady Lord Sandwich acidly addressed the editor of The North Briton. “Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of the pox.” John Wilkes, perhaps an anti-Semite, replied: “That depends, sir, on whether I embrace your politics or your mistress.” This exchange has wrongly been attributed to Gladstone and Disraeli.
It was an era when people could communicate with considerable panache. Most will have smiled at the exchange between Winston Churchill and Lady Astor who had said to him: “If you were my husband I would give you poison.”
“If you were my wife I would take it,” the turncoat politician immediately replied. With the benefit of hindsight many will have wished the pair had married. Britain’s wartime unelected premier has taken credit for many celebrated jibes. Among the best examples are, “A modest little person with much to be modest about.”
Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw detested Winston Churchill. Well aware that the object of his ire was better known for his cohorts than his friends, he wrote: “I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play. Bring a friend, if you have one.” Winston replied, “Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second, if there is one.”
Insults that carried a venomous sting must include Clarence Darrow’s: “I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure.”
All writers have their critics. But, as Finnish composer Jean Sibelius surmised, “There has never been a monument to celebrate a critic’s life.”
Journalist Ernest Hemingway had his share of critics. One of the best was William Faulkner’s summing up of the war correspondent’s writing style. “He has never been known to use a word that might send the reader to a dictionary.”
One hapless author received a memo from Moses Hadas. “Thank you for sending me a copy of your book. I’ll waste no time reading it.”
U.S President Abraham Lincoln was known for his sharp wit. “He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know.” One of Lincoln’s remarks still carries weight because it applies to so many politicians today: “It is better to keep one’s mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.”
Mark Twain, renowned for his sharp wit once said; “I didn’t attend the funeral but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.”
Those in a poor relationship may take heart from Stephen Bishop’s remark: “I feel so miserable without you. It is almost like having you here.” Equally sardonic the opinion of Irvin S. Cobb: “I have just heard about his illness. Let us hope it is nothing trivial.” Attributed to Oscar Wilde is the remark, “Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.”
After they go brings us neatly to the subject of the afterlife which prompted Jack E. Leonard to surmise; “There’s nothing wrong with you that reincarnation won’t cure.”
Source Article from http://www.renegadetribune.com/when-insults-had-style/
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