Nate
: ?Here's a synthesis of an email/chat exchange I had with a friend over the weekend.?
E: The beginning of daylight savings and the realization that it won’t be lighter than it is now until sometime in February has me looking for “light in the darkness.” I saw this auto store last night, and liked it.
N: Did you know that Goethe’s last words were “More light!”?
E: Oh, how wonderful! The only Goethe quote I know is “everything is a leaf”
N: The really funny part is, you see it quoted like that, but I looked it up and evidently his final sentence was “Could you open up the shade in the window so as to let in more light?”
E: That’s so much better! Less mystical, and therefore more so.
…
Coda: Of course now I had to look it all up again. Goethe’s last words, like those of many a famous person, are contested. The top alternate contendor is, “Come, my little daughter, and give me your little paw.” The original German version of More Light is, ”Macht doch den zweiten Fensterladen in der Stube auch auf, damit mehr Licht hereinkomme.” Pesky German habit of ending the sentence with a verb! Well, “Come in here!” has its own mystical charm too.
]]>