wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

Lately we've been noticing Gertrude Stein's words being employed in a manner that would provoke the old scribe to scurry home and beat Alice B. Toklas with Escoffier's Guide Culinaire.

For the record, "there is no there there" refers to Stein's hometown, Oakland, California, and comes from her book Everybody's Autobiography. Given the somewhat incoherent sentence those words come from, journos and newsmakers might give a little more pause before quoting Stein:

"What was the use of my having come from Oakland it was not natural to have come from there yes write about if I like or anything if I like but not there, there is no there there."

from the Village Voice: "In a Hollywood film, these logos would be given the star treatment of product placement. In Cohen's lens, they are simply there, as resolute as geological formations. Except, in Chain, there's no there there."

from the New York Times: "There was no there there," one senior United States counterterrorism official said of the possible threat that surfaced publicly late last week.

from Richard Ben-Veniste on the PBS Newshour: And one can properly ask why it took Kenneth Starr the ensuing three years until he resigned and still could not bring himself to announce that there was no "there" there in terms of any criminal responsibility by the Clintons.

from the Asia Times: So if you reverse the president's little jingle, there's no there there. "As Iraqis stand down, we will ... " Well, what?

from the San Francisco Chronicle: The Raiders have some tools, there's a glimmer of offensive potential, but so far, there's no there there.

More on Gertrude Stein (Wikiquote)