Word: lifemanship
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...privilege to know Stephen Potter, captain of all gamesmen [Dec. 12]. But he got me one-down by a mistake. In his Lifemanship (1950), a footnote to the "Yes, but not in the South" variant of the Canterbury Block reads: "I am required to state that World Copyright of this phrase is owned by its brilliant originator, Mr. Pound...
...soon as the book came out that I had sent him the original in 1947, when his Gamesmanship had been published: an article entitled "Not in the South," which I had written in Punch, May 28, 1941, long before I knew Potter or had heard of gamesmanship or lifemanship. And I told Potter that I would like to meet this usurper, Mr. Pound, whoever he was, behind the fives court...
Friends and admirers of British Humorist Stephen Potter, who died in London last week at 69, will recognize Lifeman's rejoinder as the Canterbury Block, a devastating all-purpose ploy. "Yes, but not in the South," as Potter went on to explain in Some Notes on Lifemanship, is a phrase that "with slight adjustments, will do for any argument about any place, if not about any person. It is an impossible comment to answer." Lifemanship can take many other directions. One gifted practitioner, cited by Potter in the same volume, dedicated his book "TO PHYLLIS, in the hope that...
...demonstrates, is no longer a comic figure known for his arrogance, social pretension, accent or what not. He is a switched-off, not-with-it fellow whose vague uncertainties about the liberal vision of life reflect the diminished horizons of the once Empire, and whose ineptitude in lifemanship contrasts sadly with the unshaken conviction of Americans that life is something to be lived to the limit...
Perhaps Supermanship's greatest merit lies in the fact that it should stimulate readers to develop Lifemanship ploys of their own. The first to practice with is obviously Counter-Potters. The possible scene is a cocktail party. Hostess: "And now I'd like you to meet Mr. Potter, the author." Apprentice Lifeman: "Crocker, did you say? Are you the fellow who writes all those cookbooks...