jmcquown wrote:

> Julia Altshuler wrote:
>
>>jmcquown wrote:
>>
>>>Okay, Bob - gotta test your knowledge. Do you remember where that
>>>phrase "Oh, the humanity" originated? And please don't tell me it
>>>was on an episode of WKRP in Cinncinnati!
>>
>>Alex, for 400 points, what is Melville's "Bartleby the Scrivener?"
>>
>>--Lia
>
> BZZZZT! No, sorry, wrong answer! The phrase actually came from the
> reporter standing outside what was my house (gawd!) at Lakehurst Naval Air
> Station, NJ.

I actually knew that, growing up in NJ as I did. I visited Lakehurst
on a class trip in high school. We saw the old newsreel footage before
we went on the trip. It was chilling to stand there on the ground
where it happened.

In Bartleby, I believe it's "Ah humanity," IIRC.

Pastorio

> Herb Morrison reporting. You can hear him he
>
> http://www.otr.com/hindenburg.html
>
> Our house was the former waiting station for the arriving passengers of the
> Hindenburg dirigible coming in from Germany on May 7, 1937. She burned and
> fell at the airfield just across the way. I've got some military paperwork
> from that day you wouldn't believe.
>
> They used this phrase when television character Les Nessman reported as
> staff from 'WKRP in Cinncinnati' tossed live turkeys out of helicopters over
> a supermarket, not realizing turkeys are flightless birds.
> "Oh, the humanity!"