BS: Famous Understatements

Subject: BS: Famous Understatements
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 25 May 10 - 03:55 PM

Two recent 'understatements' caught my attention. There should be many throughout written history where well-known people are quoted.

Please give reference with quote. Two to start:

Tony Hayward, CEO, BP group-
-The Gulf spill "is very, very modest"
Guardian 13 May 2010 and Bloomberg, 18 May 2010.
-"We made a few little mistakes early on."
Guardian 13 May 2010

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: Newport Boy
Date: 25 May 10 - 04:09 PM

Famous after the recent volcanic eruption

Eric Moody, Captain, BA flight 9, Kuala Lumpur to Perth, 24 June 1982

"Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them going again. I trust you are not in too much distress."

Macarthur Job (1994). Air Disaster Volume 2.

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: GUEST,Kendall
Date: 25 May 10 - 04:46 PM

One of my favorite understatements was made by Wilfred Hyde White in the film The Third Man.
Holly Martin was stranded in Vienna and he told White that his friend who called him to Vienna for a job had been killed. W.H. White said, "Oh my, that is awkward."

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: Micca
Date: 25 May 10 - 04:57 PM

" They couldn't hit an elephant at this Distance"
Union General John Sedgewick, Spotsylvania Court house May 9th 1864
he was shot under his left eye seconds later.

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: Gurney
Date: 25 May 10 - 05:02 PM

"I am just going outside and may be some time."
Captain Oates, during Scott's expedition. He is still outside.

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: Ed T
Date: 25 May 10 - 05:05 PM

"Urine is yellow? Mine ain't" anon

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: Art Thieme
Date: 25 May 10 - 05:27 PM

Mine were pretty famous when they fell down during a gig!!!
Art

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: mousethief
Date: 25 May 10 - 05:32 PM

Houston, we've got a problem.

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: gnu
Date: 25 May 10 - 05:38 PM

Intern doc just before she put a knife to the inside of my thigh about four inches from the twins: "This might sting a little."

Fortunately, the supervising surgeon leaned over, looked me in the eyes and said, "No, it's going to hurt a lot. Don't move."

He gave her a frown... he was right. On both counts.

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: olddude
Date: 25 May 10 - 05:51 PM

from the movie the empire of the sun. The Japanese base commander goes outside his bunker after the US Navy blows his airfield to shit ... everything is burning, people are running, planes all destroyed and looks up and says "Difficult Day"

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: Bill D
Date: 25 May 10 - 06:00 PM

"Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."

John Dean to Richard Nixon.."There's a cancer growing on the presidency."

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: Ed T
Date: 25 May 10 - 06:03 PM

Janet Livermore: Are my breasts too small for you?
Cliff Poncier: Sometimes.
Movie, Singles (1992)

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: Joe_F
Date: 25 May 10 - 06:12 PM

"I suppose that the distances from us [to the stars] vary so much that some are two or three times as remote as others."          -- Galileo

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: meself
Date: 25 May 10 - 06:17 PM

"I wouldn't go over that hill if I were you, Captain."

- Crow scout to General Custer

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: Don Firth
Date: 25 May 10 - 06:35 PM

CLICKY.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: Little Hawk
Date: 25 May 10 - 06:37 PM

One of the members of the Kon-Tiki expedition, chronicled by Thor Heyerdahl, was heard to make a classically understated remark shortly after they had grounded on the coral reef outside a small Pacific Island. The initial wrenching collision of the raft with the reef was followed by a series of enormous waves which swept over the small vessel, pounding it mercifully, ripping various gear off the decks, and drenching all aboard each time.

In the brief pause between waves, an English member of the crew was clearly heard to say: "This won't do."

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: GUEST,999
Date: 25 May 10 - 06:48 PM

"This structure has novel features which are of considerable biological interest."

Watson and Crick regarding the double helix.

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: Ebbie
Date: 25 May 10 - 07:46 PM

How does one pound something mercifully, Little Hawk? L0

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: Rapparee
Date: 25 May 10 - 10:33 PM

Between believing a thing and thinking you know is only a small step and quickly taken.                  

There are no people who are quite so vulgar as the over-refined.

Wagner's music is better than it sounds.

I was gratified to be able to answer promptly and I did. I said I didn't know.

                  --All by Mark Twain

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: Anglo
Date: 26 May 10 - 03:25 AM

Well, I still think the BP CEO's remarks that started this thread are unbelievable. I heard him on this side of the pond (US) and couldn't believe that nobody on the US news networks picked them up, at least not to my knowledge.

(I don't watch _every_ news broadcast).

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: SqueezeMe
Date: 26 May 10 - 12:07 PM

Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war.
(Donald Rumsfeld)

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: Don Firth
Date: 26 May 10 - 03:15 PM

Winston Churchill was a war correspondent during the Boer war. A quote of his from that time:

"Nothing is quite as exhilarating as being shot at—without result!"

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: mauvepink
Date: 26 May 10 - 03:36 PM

"That's one small step for (a) man; one giant leap for mankind"

Neil Armstrong taking the first step onto lunar soil, 02:56:15 GMT/UTC on 21 July 1969

...but WHAT a step it was!

mp

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: mousethief
Date: 26 May 10 - 04:35 PM

A collision at sea can ruin your whole day -- Thucydides

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: Little Hawk
Date: 26 May 10 - 08:50 PM

I meant to type unmercifully, Ebbie. ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: Ed T
Date: 26 May 10 - 09:59 PM

"I've learned not to put things in my mouth that are bad for me." —Monica Lewinsky, on CNN's Larry King Live discussing her miraculous Jenny Craig weight-loss.

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: gnomad
Date: 27 May 10 - 03:21 AM

"...the war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage."

Hirohito's broadcast to the Japanese, announcing their surrender, noon, Aug 15th, 1945.

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: Little Hawk
Date: 27 May 10 - 04:06 PM

You have to use understatement for things like that in Japan. It's expected. You're also supposed to avoid being so rude as to directly say "no" to someone. This can lead to very lengthy and convoluted negotiations when the actual answer, in fact, is "no".

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: Bill D
Date: 27 May 10 - 05:55 PM

I had an old Japanese audio gadget (is there any other kind?) years ago, where the setup instructions said things like .."we suggest you not insert green wire into hole 'A', as problem happenings might result."

They have since gotten beyond that in products for export.

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: Ed T
Date: 28 May 10 - 05:37 PM

Can't act. Slightly bald. Can dance a little.
- Screen Tester on Fred Astaire

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: Ed T
Date: 28 May 10 - 05:41 PM

Most of the time he sounds like he has a mouth full of toilet paper.
- Rex Reed on Marlon Brando

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: Ed T
Date: 28 May 10 - 05:53 PM

From Men in Tights:

[preparing to ravish Maid Marian]
Sheriff of Rottingham: "A chastity belt! That's going to chafe my willy!"

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: Smokey.
Date: 28 May 10 - 06:28 PM

"I just 'it 'em"

(Ginger Baker)

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: Royston
Date: 29 May 10 - 01:30 PM

Surely it was John Swigert's (Apollo 13) pilot's famous (and oft mis-quoted line)

"Houston, we've had a problem here"

Just after an explosion that caused the loss of the main capsule's oxygen and electrical supply.

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: Ed T
Date: 29 May 10 - 02:41 PM

I get so tired listening to one million dollars here, one million dollars there, it's so petty.

Doesn't the fight for survival also justify swindle and theft? In self defence, anything goes.

Filipinos want beauty. I have to look beautiful so that the poor Filipinos will have a star to look at from their slums.

God is love. I have loved. Therefore, I will go to heaven.

I did not have three thousand pairs of shoes, I had one thousand and sixty.

All: Imelda Marcos

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: GUEST,alan cox guest
Date: 29 May 10 - 03:36 PM

noah "it looks like rain"

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: mousethief
Date: 29 May 10 - 04:52 PM

Surely it was John Swigert's (Apollo 13) pilot's famous (and oft mis-quoted line)

"Houston, we've had a problem here"

Just after an explosion that caused the loss of the main capsule's oxygen and electrical supply.

Just as I mentioned, several days before you.

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 29 May 10 - 07:59 PM

""The British are feeling the pinch in relation to recent terrorist bombings and threats to destroy nightclubs and airports, and therefore have raised their security level from 'Miffed' to 'Peeved.' Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to 'Irritated' or even 'A Bit Cross.' Brits have not been 'A Bit Cross' since the Blitz in 1940 when tea supplies all but ran out.""

Anonymous internet posting.

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 29 May 10 - 08:07 PM

""Roll up your sleeve for me.

Now, you may feel a little scratch.""

Thousands of nurses brandishing Hypodemic Nurdles.
Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: Ed T
Date: 29 May 10 - 08:08 PM

To be great is to be misunderstood.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: Ed T
Date: 29 May 10 - 08:10 PM

Join the army, visit exotic places, meet strange people, then kill them. Source, unknown

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: Ed T
Date: 29 May 10 - 09:05 PM

"Germany has concluded a Non-Aggression Pact with Poland... We shall adhere to it unconditionally... we recognize Poland as the home of a great and nationally conscious people."
Adolf Hitler - 21st May 1935

"Before we're through with them, the Japanese language will be spoken only in hell.USA Admiral Halsey - December 1941

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: Ed T
Date: 29 May 10 - 09:09 PM

"It would have been easier to fight alone with inadequate forces than to have to accept...responsibility for our ally's lack of fighting qualities and dubious loyalty."
German Field Marshal Albert Kesselring - August 1943 (After the German evacuation of Sicily)

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: Willie-O
Date: 30 May 10 - 07:09 PM

""The British are feeling the pinch in relation to recent terrorist bombings and threats to destroy nightclubs and airports, and therefore have raised their security level from 'Miffed' to 'Peeved.' Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to 'Irritated' or even 'A Bit Cross.' Brits have not been 'A Bit Cross' since the Blitz in 1940 when tea supplies all but ran out.""

In this instance, I guess the term Brits is meant to specify the English. If you've ever read any of the Comments Section in "The Scotsman", or met some of my relatives, you'll know what I mean.

W-O

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: Rapparee
Date: 30 May 10 - 07:24 PM

When talking about the Gulf oil blowout, a friend of mine said this morning, "I think it likely that we might have problem on our hands."

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 May 10 - 12:38 AM

Not really an understatement, but I just shook my head at the ignorant redundancy which was emblazoned across the back of a "Hooters" t-shirt:

"Delightfully tacky, yet unrefined."

Hooters, in case some don't know, are bars where men, esp., go to see scantily clad women with very noticeable breasts serve them their drinks, etc. It gives a whole new meaning to "titty bar."

Sorry for posting off the present subject.

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: mousethief
Date: 31 May 10 - 02:12 AM

Not really an understatement

That's okay, fully half the posts on the thread so far aren't.

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: fat B****rd
Date: 31 May 10 - 03:25 AM

Here's a 'not really'. Mick Jagger, when asked about his future in the late sixties. "Do this when I'm 40! Christ on a bike,I'd rather be dead."

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: Ed T
Date: 31 May 10 - 05:55 AM

"That's okay, fully half the posts on the thread so far aren't" (an understatement).

Quote, mousethief

Subject: RE: BS: Famous Understatements
From: The Sandman
Date: 31 May 10 - 12:45 PM

To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness[Oscar Wilde].