Tavares@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA (10/08/86)
I'm not convinced that you didn't get the idiom backward. "Knowledge is something sat in your lap" implies that you can have it given to you, or magically acquire it, or the like (i.e., a windfall), but you can't get it by working at it no matter how hard you try. For example, winning the lottery is sat in your lap. Sum God's chillun gots it, others nebba will.
nessus@EDDIE.MIT.EDU (Doug Alan) (10/08/86)
> From: Tavares@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA > I'm not convinced that you didn't get the idiom backward. > "Knowledge is something sat in your lap" implies that you can have > it given to you, or magically acquire it, or the like (i.e., a > windfall), but you can't get it by working at it no matter how hard > you try. For example, winning the lottery is sat in your lap. Sum > God's chillun gots it, others nebba will. I don't think so. I'm not sure how the idiom is usually used, but it is clear here that Kate is playing with opposites. "Some say that heaven is hell. Some say that hell is heaven." So when she says, "Some say that knowledge is something sat in your lap", she means, "Some say that knowledge is something that you get lots of without even trying". She then follows this with the opposite, "Some say that knowledge is something that you never have." >oug "Give me the Karma, Mama"
Love-Hounds-request@EDDIE.MIT.EDU.UUCP (01/15/87)
Really-From: drukman%UMass.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU (Jonathan S. Drukman) IED recently said something to the effect that "sat in your lap has more than you can comfortably absorb in three minutes" in opposition to a statement that ran something like "it was too short for three minutes..." I would agree with the original poster - "Sat In Your Lap" could run for 15 minutes, with 10 of those merely the drum track and it still wouldn't be enough! Maybe IED can live with three minutes as the perfect length for covering the profound statement Kate is making, and I would agree that "Sat In Your Lap" as it is is a striking piece of music, but one of these days I'll get access to her master tapes and make a recording of ten minutes of those striking drums, which convey as much of a message in themselves as the rest of the tracks put together! jon drukman "your trust - the most gorgeously stupid thing I ever cut in the world" --the cure, "a night like this"