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February 20, 2004
Origin of "May you live in interesting times."
While trying to find the "latter portion" of the oft-used phrase, "May you live in interesting times," I discovered that there is a strong enough argument that it isn't Chinese in origin, as it is often attributed. Stephen DeLong of the University of Albany has an interesting article mapping his own adventures in trying to determine the origin of the phrase. It's a fun read in that he talks about what it was like to do research like this just as the Internet was really beginning to pick up steam.
By the way, the full phrase that I had originally set out to find is "May you live in interesting times and attract the attention of important people," attributed to Keith Henson.
Posted by KinCross at February 20, 2004 11:46 PM