RE:   Last words spoken on the moon (by Eugene Cernan?):

| "Let's get this mother outta here."
|
| (Not quite in the same league as "One small step for a man.." etc., but
| memorable nonetheless.)

You got Neil Armstrong's words wrong.    He never said "a man".    Not
being a professional actor, Armstrong, with perhaps the most famous walk-on
line in history, flubbed his own line!     I guess he had a few things on
his mind right then.

What the man said was "That's one small step for    man.    One giant leap
for mankind."     My pre-pubescent mind interpreted that as equivalent to
"one small step for man(kind).    One giant leap for mankind." which
doesn't make much sense of course.    'Uncle' Walter Chronkite ("the most
trusted man in America") became perhaps the first instant, mass market,
historical revisionist by adding the "a man".    So has nearly everyone
else.   I wonder how many people caught the error.

Cernan's words resemble the words of another famous explorer in a similar
situation - Ed Hillary.    When Hillary wrote his official account he was
then Sir Edmond Hillary and had to watch his language.   In his book he
describes coming down from the summit of Everest and greeting the
expedition leader who had walked out of high camp on the South Col to meet
the returning climbers.    In the book Hillary wrote that "I called out the
news of our success in rough Australian slang".    Many years later Hillary
would confess over beer that what he really said was something like "we did
the mother!".

Henry Ford was partly right when he said "history is bunk".    Ford made
statements like that to get press coverage.   In actuality Ford read a fair
bit of history -- all of which just goes to prove the accuracy of his
famous line.
--
  Cortlandt Wilson
  Cortlandt Software
  (650) 966-8555
  www.netcom.com/~cortlndt  (includes MANMAN 3rd Party Resources site)



--
  Cortlandt Wilson
  Cortlandt Software
  (650) 966-8555
  www.netcom.com/~cortlndt  (includes MANMAN 3rd Party Resources site)

Eric Bender <[log in to unmask]> wrote in article
<[log in to unmask]>...
| Apparently they were:
|
| "Let's get this mother outta here."
|
| (Not quite in the same league as "One small step for a man.." etc., but
| memorable nonetheless.)
|