Curiouser and Curiouser

Neither a borrower nor a lender be. Simple enough, no? I was so proud for finally realizing it wasn’t Ben Franklin who had said this, as I had long thought — it was Shakespeare.

And then Ed Vosik responded in this space: “It wasn’t Shakespeare. It was Polonius.”

“And here I had thought it was Ben Franklin,” I replied to Ed. “But wait a minute. Did you HEAR him say it? See a tape? How do you know? Anyway: Shakespeare said it, too. And gets extra points for saying it in English. (Non offensorum, amicus Polonius.)”

Now comes Jim Halperin:

“Actually, Shakespeare WROTE it, in Hamlet, in the form of a soliloquy of advice from Polonius to his son.”

And John:

“Polonius spoke Danish and probably would not have understood your apology written in Latin.”

Oy! I feel stupider with each passing day. (I was shocked, in the midst of the Diana tragedy, to learn that the members of the British royal family are German — and astonished to learn I was the only one in the world who didn’t know.) Danish? With a name like Polonius? I give up. Borrow and lend all you like. What do I know.

Soon: Your Feedback on Roth IRAs, Going Postal, Etc.