Originally posted by Aurelius
Actually, Bocci, I thought this type of phrase was called a Chiasmus, though parallelism is certainly appropriate too.

Kennedy followed in Churchill's literary tradition, where Churchill's chiasmi helped inspire a nation throughout WWII. His quotes are available everywhere so there's no point reciting them here.

Time's fun when you're having flies!
Et tu, Aurelius?

Boy, just a few days ago I nominated him for Nikka's hedonistic Hall of Fame and now he shows me up! ;-)

Aurelius is quite right about 'chiasmus', which is THE technical term for this sort of contrasting expression, but one which I thought would be utterly unfamiliar to everyone but him.

I was indeed remiss in not giving Churchill credit for inspiring both Kennedy and Sorenson. Who can forget his comment, after Monty's victory at El Alamein: "This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is perhaps the end of the beginning."

And that is only the best known of many.

But to get back to our usual topic:

"When in doubt, it's better to cop a feel, than to feel a cop."

Boccaccio