We'll always have Hilter?
I'm comin' down fast
But i'm miles above you
Tell me, tell me, tell me the answer
You may be a lover
But you ain't no dancer
Hilter skilter . . .
It seems there are three different geographical versions. In his book "The phrase that launched 1,000 ships", Nigel Rees tends to believe the "alive and well" began in a natural way, probably after WWII. But (he writes) the phrase was given a tremendous fillip when the Belgian-born songwriter and singer Jacques Brel (1929-1978) made the subject of an Off-broadway musical show called "Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris". According to Rees, the show was an immense success and ran from 1968 to 1972, therefore paving the way to more and more "alive and well and living...".
By the way, Brel was not living in Paris at the time, but in the Marquises Islands, and he was not well not all.
References to Argentina could be earlier, since it refers obviously to the capture of Adolf Eichman in Argentina in 1960. According to the Israeli commander of the operation, Isser Har'el, Germany asked Britain to arrest Eichman in British-controlled Yemen, only to be answered calmly by the Foreign Office that "Eichman was alive and well and living in Argentina".
There was also persistant rumours that Hitler was alive and well in Argentina after the WWII. That rumor was based on the well-known fact that Nazis had taken refuge in Argentina and that there were a fair number of native Hitler sympathizers there. It was probably helped along by the practice (common at least in left-wing circles in America) of referring to Peron's regime as fascist.
The third version is from the seventies. The decade began with a religious slogan, 'God is not dead . . . He's alive and well and living in your heart", quickly turned into jokes (Walter Lippman - "God is not dead. He is alive and appearing twice a week in the Washington Post", c. 1970); The famous graffiti "God is not dead-but alive and well and working on a much less ambitious project" appeared in 1979. But New York was then already queen of that cliche, courtesy of the movie from 1975, "Sheila Devine dead and Living in New York".
For the record, In his preface to "His Last Bow" (1917), Conan Doyle wrote: "The Friends of Mr. Sherlock Holmes will be glad to learn that he is still alive and well".
What we have here, my friends, is a digression thread.
Not really, Deb. I just wanted the boss to realize that history comes in all phases.
Actually, it is my opinion that Hitler rose to power because of the times, and Setanta is right. Too much stuff about a small man with a goose step.
Oh sure, now rag on about the unsightfulness of geese, what's next, golf courses?
Reyn wants you to visit his thread about a golfer beating a Canada goose to death . . .
As a matter of fact, dys. I don't think Hitler played golf.<smile>
(Hilter Skelter was cute, set)
My word, folks. How long ago we asked the burning question:
Does man make the times or does time make the man?
All this reminds me a bit fondly of Louis de Bernieres' midbook riff on Mussolini in Corelli's Mandolin. It reads like a wild rant against him, but I bet every single point in that particular seven pages can be verified - much of the specifics fits with my past reading about that imbecile. Some bits of the riff have reverberations re present day military actions.
Does anyone really know what time is? Does anyone really care?
What is a man?
What has he got?
If not himself,
Then he has not.....
Ah - they just don't make poets like they useter....
What wine goes well with hasenpfeffer?
That'll be game, Set, and match.
What is the origin of monumental lapine conceit?
