Too subtle for my own good. I was teasing Harry (I knew which
equivocation Harry meant). The poet was Woody Guthrie.
On Dec 8, at 2:59 PM, Patricia M. Godfrey wrote:
David Auerbach wrote:
"Some will rob you with a six-gun, others with a fountain pen"
(in the poet's immortal words).
But you're right. "highway robbery" *is* equivocal. It could mean
*robbery on highway* or *robbery of the highway*.
I don't think that's what Harry meant by equivocation. And of course
I was using "highway robbery" in its traditional sense: robbery on
the [king's] highway--so that it was a higher-level crime than, say,
robbing some poor peasant's orchard. But under modern conditions,
the other meaning could well apply.
Which poet was that? I was trying to work in C.S. Lewis's line about
"Who cares what color shirt/ [or suit] The murdering Party
wears" (written during the 30s, in rebuke to Roy Campbell's flirting
with fascism).
--
Patricia M. Godfrey
priscameg@xxxxxxxx
David Auerbach
Department of Philosophy & Religion
Box 8103
NCSU
Raleigh, NC 27695-8103