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Dave Barry Slept Here: A Sort of History of the United States

Book by Dave Barry · 3 quotes · Funny, Men, Humorous

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Dave Barry Slept Here: A Sort of History of the United States Quotes

“The problem was that Panama technically belonged to Colombia, which refused to sign a treaty leasing it to the United States. So Roosevelt sent a gunboat filled with marines down to Panama, just on the off chance that a revolution might suddenly break out, and darned if one didn't, two days later. Not only that, but the leaders of the new nation of Panama-talk about lucky breaks!-were absolutely thrilled to have the United States build a canal there. 'Really, it's our pleasure,' they told the marines, adding, 'Don't shoot.'”

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Book:Dave Barry Slept Here: A Sort of History of the United States
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“The United States tried, by depressing the clutch of diplomacy and downshifting the gearshift lever of rhetoric, to remain neutral, but it became increasingly obvious that the nation was going to get into a war, especially since it was almost 1812.”

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Book:Dave Barry Slept Here: A Sort of History of the United States
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“We constantly see surveys that reveal this ignorance, especially among our high school students,78 percent of whom, in a recent nationwide multiple-choice test, identified Abraham Lincoln as 'a kind of lobster.' That's right: more than three quarters of our nation's youth could not correctly identify the man who invented the telephone.”

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Book:Dave Barry Slept Here: A Sort of History of the United States
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