"You Can Quote Me": Who said it? Quiz

Answer: Lyndon Johnson

LBJ uttered those words July 28, 1965 as the nightmare of Vietnam continued to haunt him. The Vietnam War lasted from November 1955 until April 1975 when Saigon finally fell. When it ended, it was the longest war in which the United States had ever been engaged. Over 58,000 American troops were killed and more than 300,000 were wounded.

Johnson was the 36th President of the United States, serving from Nov. 22, 1963-January 20, 1969. He declined another run for the presidency in the 1968 elections, citing concerns about his failing health as the reason.

Answer: Woody Allen

Woody, born Allen Konigsberg on December 1, 1935 is an actor, director, playwright, comedian, author and musician. He has accomplished a lot in his first seven decades.
As a playwright he has won Oscars for "Annie Hall" (1978), "Hannah and Her Sisters" (1987) and "Midnight in Paris" (2012). He also won the Academy Award for Best Director for "Annie Hall". He has directed over 40 films and appeared in more than 55 others. Woody has also penned several short stories, including "Without Feathers" (1975).

Answer: Mae West

Mae West was born in 1893 in N.Y. Her father was a boxer who fought as "Battlin' Jack West". She was an actress and writer who started her career in vaudeville. After a number of Broadway plays, starting in 1911 as Maggie O'Hara in "A La Broadway", she went on to be one the biggest stars in Hollywood.

She got tossed in the clink for a few days for a play she wrote called "Sex" (1926), but depite her public image she neither smoked nor drank. Among her most popular movies were "She Done Him Wrong" (1933) and "My Little Chickadee" (1940) co-starring W.C. Fields, with whom she shared a mutual dislike. George Raft appeared in both Ms. West's first film "Night After Night" (1932) and 52 years later in her last, "Sextette" (1978).

The bigger than life Mae West has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Answer: Ernest Hemingway

Papa, who knew? Ernest Hemingway was delivered into the world July 21, 1899 by his physician father, Dr. Clarence Hemingway. He set an eerie tradition for his son to follow.
In his 61 years E.H. married four times and survived two plane crashes. In WWI he won a Silver Medal for bravery as an ambulance driver in Italy and a Bronze Star for his actions in WWII.
It is in the world of literature where he earned his everlasting fame. He wrote ten novels, ten works of nonfiction and 49 short stories. "The Old Man and the Sea" won him the 1953 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature. He was divorced three times and a chronic alcoholic. On July 2, 1961 he committed suicide, as his father had done decades earlier. Years later his granddaughter Margaux would do the same.

Answer: Satchel Paige

Leroy "Satchel" Paige may be the greatest pitcher who ever lived. We'll never really know because he wasn't allowed to play in the Major Leagues until the age of 42, when he debuted as a "rookie" for the Cleveland Indians. He had spent over 20 years toiling in the Negro Leagues, 13 of those years with the Kansas City Monarchs. Somehow, he was still skilled enough to be pitching in the "bigs" until age 59, in 1965 for the Kansas City A's of the American League. Satch was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971, the first player from the Negro Leagues to be so honored. His biography sort of defines his philosophy: "Maybe I'll Pitch Forever" (1993).

Answer: Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine, the noted pamphleteer, was born in jolly old England in 1737. His most famous work is "Common Sense" (1776). After a chance meeting with American statesman Benjamin Franklin, Paine emigrated to America. He was a strong opponent of slavery and an equally strong proponent of a form of social security for the elderly and indigent.

He wrote those famous words as The American Revolutionary War with England raged, in his "The American Crisis" (1776-77). He certainly had a way with words for a lad who had flunked out of school at age 12.

Answer: Mark Twain

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his nom de plume came up with that interesting quote. He was born in 1835 and raised in Hannibal, MO and brought us a myriad of characters from his creative mind. He wrote over a dozen novels, 20 stories and several works of nonfiction.

In "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" (1876) he introduced us to the aforementioned Tom, along with Huck Finn, Becky Thatcher and Injun' Joe. In other tales we met Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894) and heard the accounts of "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" (1889).

His most popular story is "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" (1867). Among his nonfiction works, "Life on the Mississippi" (1883) is based on his actual days as a riverboat pilot on that mighty river.

Answer: Oscar Wilde

Irish dramatist, novelist and poet, Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde could turn a phrase with the best of them. Personally, I think that's one of the funniest quotes anyone ever spoke.
Living his life in the second half of the 19th century, Wilde wrote his only novel, "The Picture of Dorian Gray" in 1890. In 1887 he penned his most popular short story, "The Canterville Ghost" and he produced his most famous play, "The Importance of Being Earnest" in 1890.

Another one of his great quotes is:
"Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination".

Answer: Babe Ruth

George Herman Ruth who was raised in a Baltimore orphanage had a lot of names and a lot of talent. You can call him "The Babe", "The Bambino" or "The Sultan of Swat" and you can also call him one of the greatest talents ever to play Major League baseball.

His lifetime (22 years) stats were a batting average of .342 with 714 home runs (HR) and 2,211 runs batted in (RBI). As for his 1929 year being better than the 31st president's, indeed it was. For that year, while Hoover's citizens were mired in The Great Depression, Babe hit .345 with 46 HRs and 136 RBIs, leading the league in the last two categories.

In 1927 he became the first player to hit 60 HRs in a season. His famous uniform number 3 was retired by the Yankees in 1948 and he was inducted into The Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, N.Y. in 1936.

Answer: Agatha Christie

Dame Agatha, "the Queen of Crime", brought life to some fine literary characters, most notably Miss Marple and the Belgiam gumshoe Hercule Poirot. In a 46 year writing career she produced 15 short story collections, 17 plays, 66 detective novels and 150 short stories.

Her most famous play is "The Mousetrap" (1952) which has run over 24,000 performances and her best selling novel is "And Then There Were None" (1939), which has sold over 100 million copies. In total her novels, which have been translated into over 100 languages, have sold over four billion (with a "B") copies worldwide.

She also wrote 6 novels under the pen name of Mary Westmacott.