Quote:
Originally Posted by ATDrake
"Ursa Minor Beta is, some say, one of the most appalling places in the known Universe.
Although it is excruciatingly rich, horrifyingly sunny and more full of wonderfully exciting people than a pomegranate is of pips, it can hardly be insignificant that when a recent edition of Playbeing Magazine headlined an article with the words, 'When you are tired of Ursa Minor Beta you are tired of life', the suicide rate there quadrupled overnight."
(What Douglas Adams wrote in one of the Hitchhiker's Guide books.)
Sorry, couldn't resist. And why do we not have a "Don't Panic" smiley? It seems  is the closest I can get. |
For those who don't get it, Johnson was often referred to as Ursa Major.
Even more obscurely, Jane Austen is regarded by some or maybe more as a moralist second only to Johnson, which is what makes this quote appropriate.
But I confess that I don't get the Beta, unless (a) we shoehorn someone in between Johnson & Austen (Eliot, perhaps?) or (b) there's nothing to get.