Talk:Ring Lardner

Untitled
While the highlighting I removed was colorful, it did not particularly add to the content of the article and might make reading difficult with some browsers. See Policies and guidelines: Use color sparingly and Do not highlight every instance of title item in text body. I therefore reverted the article to remove it. -- April


 * "Lardner never intentionally wrote a novel"  Does this mean he might have written one accidently? DMorpheus 13:39, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

The Young Immigrunts (1920)
Ought this be mentioned somewhere in the article? After all, it does contain what he is most famous for today, the line ""Shut up", he explained." Smyslov 18:51, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

Much Cited But Never Attributed
There is a song called Let's Take a Walk Around the Block by Harold Arlen with lyrics written by Ira Gershwin and E.Y. Harburg, made popular by Ella Fitzgerald in the US and Geraldo in the UK. One of its verses says: You're just the companion I want at Grand Canyon For throwing old blades down the rock....

Searching for the origin of what I assumed was some honeymooner's tradition or the like, I turned to a popular Internet search engine. It turns out that the reference is to a quote attributed to Ring Lardner, one suppoedly made in reponse to seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time: "What a marvelous place to throw old razor blades!" But this attribution occurs online only in an article called Theology and Imagination, and in none of the many posted copies thereof could I find the citation's source. Does anyone know how we know that he said that, or even if he did?

Though the quote certainly seems plausible, I hope to be sure before I pass it on in my own writings. More misinformation is an Internet blessing we just don't need. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.219.118.86 (talk) 23:10, 30 April 2011 (UTC)


 * Somehow that sounds like Yip Harburg :D ELSchissel (talk) 14:24, 11 February 2022 (UTC)

Naming his son Ringgold Jr
Lardner never liked his given name and shortened it, naming one of his sons Ring Jr.
 * In fact, he named his son Ringgold Wilmer Lardner, Jr, the very same name that he himself rejected. Why would any father be so perverse as to foist onto his child a name he himself disliked and refused to use?  --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  22:39, 8 December 2013 (UTC)


 * The notion that Lardner never liked his given name seems to have legs - a search reveals many repetitions of the very phrase you quote above, over the net - but now you have me wondering if there's a source!... ELSchissel (talk) 02:15, 16 September 2022 (UTC)

Bush league baseball player?
Will someone explain this term, for those of us unfortunate enough not to have been born in the USA, the Greatest Nation in the World ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:44B8:3102:BB05:1D7:7383:8B27:376F (talk) 22:45, 29 August 2017 (UTC)

Birth date
Most sources say 6 March, but we're saying 5 March. Whence the discrepancy? --  Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  22:31, 24 July 2021 (UTC)


 * I've changed it to 6 March. One source saying 5 March does not outweigh all the others. --  Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  20:48, 3 February 2022 (UTC)

Julian uncertainty?
The USA changed to Gregorian calendar in the 1750s. Why the uncertainty? ELSchissel (talk) 12:20, 2 February 2022 (UTC) (I withdraw the question :) ELSchissel (talk) 14:22, 11 February 2022 (UTC))