Like George Washington"I can not tell a lie . “ Except , of course , for that one . We ’ve all heard the story about how untried George Washington was speculative enough to chop up down a neighbor ’s cherry Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree , but not bad ( or , perhaps , voguish ) enough to dwell about it” ¦ but it turns out that the story itself is a large , productive fabrication . Washington ’s first biographer , the questionable Anglican curate " Parson" Weems , cut the tale from whole cloth . It ’s the most famous history from Weem ’s saintly 1799 life history , conveniently published right after Washington die and could no longer represent himself .
Like Sherlock Holmes"Elementary , my dear Watson . “ Famous words , but not unity Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would have acknowledge . Doyle never cite his literary creation , Sherlock Holmes , as saying that famous demarcation . Instead , it occur from a series of Sherlock Holmes motion-picture show starring Basil Rathbone . Which just show what you learned in high schoolhouse English class , watching the movie is n’t the same as take the book .
Like the Bible"Spare the rod and spoil the child . “ You ’ll be happy to know that the axiom mention by your parents right before they turned you over their knee joint is not Biblical in origin . In fact , its rootage is rather scandalous . Like a T.V. preacher catch in a peaked motel , " spare the rod" really jump from the brain of Samuel Butler , an English playwright who ’s also cognise for his long poemDildoides , which holds the eminence of being the only book - length poem written about a dispatch of Gallic dildo . In the poem , the dildoides are destroyed by British customs , but not before Butler can depict them in somewhat painful particular . awful , like your bottom after a good spanking .
