Gerry Hemming: Timeline

[John Simkin]

John wrote:

My invitation to Gerry to put the record straight about his past has been turned into an attack on Tosh Plumlee. As my old football coach used to say, the best form of defence is attack.

Now John, you need to give credit where credit is due. The author of that famous statement was the legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers, Vince Lombardi. But you have it slightly wrong. As I recall it, his statement was: "The best defense is a good offense."

I used to use that quotation to prove that I was a defensive driver.

A typical response of an American imperialist. I can assure you that some of the world's best quotations come from the UK (especially those concerning political strategy that were developed in our imperialist period). My football coach did not claim that he invented the phrase. He probably got in from his football coach in the 1930s. By the way, when I talk about football, I mean world football, not American football (one example of how our form of imperialism was greater than that of the Americans).

I hope this is not an example of your trying to direct attention away from Gerry's willingless to create a timeline of his life.

[Tim Gratz]

John, thanks for accepting that I was not engaging in "misdirection".

The reason I jumped in to add Lombardi's name because we are proud that he came from Wisconsin.

I assume you would rather that I sing the praises of Lombardi than, say, Joseph McCarthy.

I will try to verify it but I am quite sure the quote to which you refered is in fact a Lombardi quote.

*********************

Well, John, I may need to admit error here. After a brief internet search I found many references to that quote yet not one attributing it to Lomardi.

I did find an "official" Lombardi web-site with a lot of his quotes (http://www.vincelombardi.com/about/quotes/leader.html)

but that web-site does not attribute that quote to him.

So I may have been wrong in attributing it to Lombardi.

At least however I got the actual quote correct. It is used a lot, often in political commentary.

Now back to Hemming!

Edited January 9, 2006 by Tim Gratz

[Tim Gratz]

Well, one internet post attributes the quote to Sun Tzu:

Many millennia ago, the Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu said, the best defense is a good offense. The principle of warfare was true then, is true today, and will forever be true.