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Date:
Sun, 4 Apr 1999 23:09:53 -0400
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john sitter wrote:
> Dear Twainians,
>
> I'm trying to remember where I read a joke--well, a humorous story,
> anyway--so that I can quote and cite it properly.
>
> It's a variation on the world-as-vale-of-tears theme, and the general
> situation is that a preacher (rabbi? somebody's grandfather?) is
> declaiming something like so: "Oh, what a world of woe. Happiness is
> uncertain, misery certain. Lucky is he who passes from it quickly.
> Luckiest of all not to be born at all. But to whom is such good fortune
> granted? --Scarcely one in a thousand."
>
> A lugubrious enough joke, but, with that careful attempt at accuracy,
> one of my favorite punchlines. Is it from somewhere in Twain?
>
> With thanks for any help,
> John Sitter
>
I know it as an old Yiddish/Jewish joke. I'm sure Leo Rosten quotes it somewhere
in Joys of Yiddish.
George Robinson
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