Our Daily Bleg: One More Call for Wit and Wisdom

Here’s the most recent guest bleg from Fred Shapiro, editor of the Yale Book of Quotations. His past blegs can be found here.

Last week I blegged for examples of modern proverbs, like “Sh*t happens,” “It takes a village to raise a child,” “Different strokes for different folks,” “The opera ain’t over until the fat lady sings,” “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch,” or “If anything can go wrong, it will.”

Over 180 people responded, contributing excellent items that have previously eluded proverb dictionaries, such as “It’s not the crime, it’s the coverup,” “Some days you’re the windshield, some days you’re the bug,” “Think outside the box,” and “Get busy living or get busy dying.” Sunday’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution published an article about the bleg and the responses.

For next week, I have an even more compelling bleg planned, but for this week I want to make sure all the modern-proverbs fans have had their say.

Those of you who have so far refrained, please let us know your favorite pearls of contemporary wit and wisdom. All suggestions will be carefully considered for the forthcoming Yale Book of Modern Proverbs, to be published by Yale University Press.