I have a day-to-day calendar which has nice little quotes down the bottom. They’re fun, sometimes relevent, sometimes well known – but mostly a good way to procrastinate for, say, 30 seconds. However, throughout the good ol’ calendar there happens to be many many quotes by someone known as P. K. Shaw (see http://www.yourquotations.net/PK%20Shaw_quotes.html for examples). As said on some obscure internet/email (??) website thingy, “Wherever you find a book of quotes you will inevitably find something attributed to P.K.Shaw” (http://lists.webjunction.org/wjlists/publib/2000-January/029564.html). Who he or she is I haven’t really known; even Google can’t help me out (you know, the definitive research tool and all). So perhaps ol’ P.K. doesn’t exist. Which makes it even more annoying, seeing as though Shaw is supposedly someone whose advice we’re meant to take. Even though I don’t like the whole ‘Anonymous’ thing, it’d probably be better to say that to make up a name, and a dodgy name at that (“Oh, yes,” I can hear those fatcats at the calendar publishing company, “let’s make a name with initials at the front. They respect that. And Shaw rhymes with sure, hohoho…well, that’s a silly point, but let’s put it that way, what ho”).
Moving on from that, I’ve also been thinking about people quoting in general. What is the deal with being able to quote something, slipping it in in a general conversation? Obviously, some are better than others at quoting stuff, and those who aren’t really good…I suppose you can laugh at. But why so it in the first place? Some of my conclusions include:
1. It’s somebody else’s idea, I guess, that you may not have though of before.
2. There’s (usually) a shared knowledge of the quote, and so in the first few words another person can tell what they’re going to say, and what the point is they’re trying to make.
3. A quote has what you want to say more elegantly, and/or funnier than what you could ever come up with
4. It’s easier than to think of that than something original (see 1.)
In this day and age…well, in MY day and age, it seems as though The Simpsons is the major thing quoted. Which is good…to an extent. Other things should be quoted too, obviously, because The Simpsons can’t always save us. Along with ol’ P. K.
So there you have it. A grand second blog post. Isn’t it grand.
41 Comments
Quoting is important because we’re all insecure and don’t believe our own opinion has any weight so we quote someone else, because they obviously know more then we do!
Hehehe indeed
You’ve got me hooked on the mystery of this K.P Shaw character.
Who is this person?
Kudos to your entry. I was bored at work, started reading the calendar, randomly decided to look up “Pk Shaw” and found out he is a ficticious character invented by a calendar editor. THEN found this entry whilst looking up from Google “Who is PK Shaw?”
So this P.K Shaw is fictional, well the plot thickens…
Oh and hi jes I hope you enjoyed your visit to the bizarre world of Middle of Nowhere!
As an early respondent replied, I too was bored and read the calander at work, liked the quote about grass inbetween pavement and thought “who is P.K. shaw?”… and this is where I ended up.
Please don’t tell me this guy is made up, it will make me loose faith in the rest of the calander year…
I exist damn it… don’t doubt me and remember, our favorite season is the one that has just gone.
And now the plot thickens even more – possibly to the point it has become congealed…
So is the mysterious P.K. Shaw a figment of our collective imaginations? A figment of Google’s imagination (which manifests itself through comments on an obscure internet blog?).
Or, is P.K. Shaw really the omnipresent being we all hope exists. People often get their imagination’s mixed up with their memories…
The name is made up, the quotes are made up, no difference. At least they are relevant which may be what draws us all to them. I too did wonder what his claim to fame was though!
I think you’ll find that he does exist. There is a Professor Peter Knox-Shaw (also written as Knox Shaw) who is an honorary research associate in the English department at the University of Cape Town. He was a full-time member and senior lecturer of the English department from 1975 to 1991. He was made an honorary research associate of the department in 1994. He received the 2006 book award for his work “Jane Austen and the Enlightenment”.
Sorry to ruin a good story!
Oh, this throws a spanner in the works!
But is the good Professor ourP.K. Shaw?
This is looking like a question we’ll have to pose to Column 8!
So I guess the next question is how does an English literature professor end up with every second quote in every “quote calendar” ever published?
Sorry to burst your bubble. I do exist and live in Australia. I was bored with the old quotations on the desk calendar and thought fresh thoughts were needed.
Cheers!
P.K. SHAW is Pamela Shaw from Perth, formerly from NSW Australia. I may be contacted on psha1637@bigpond.net.au for further information.
quote fr. p.k. shaw 2day 5/4/07 on my calendar at work in australia… “Great people have one thing in common – they do not conform”….
…and thus….my quote of the day is…..
“To conform ,or not to conform ….that is the question”!?!
Great mischief
I run a trivia competition every couple of months , team if you quote code 71 I wil give you an extra point.
Stretch
Thank you James, but I’m not the good professor. I am now retired but was a credit controller for many years. Before that I worked in the accounts department of a furniture manufacturer and was bored with the repetitive nature of the work; I was also bored with the quotations on the bottom of the desk calendars and decided to write some of my own and look for a market. It is surprising what you can do when you give it a go. Remember, “the person in the front carriage isn’t always the first on the platform”.-P.K. SHAW
I love this website!
Pamela Shaw
Your quotes are terrible… todays: “We can never see ourselves as other see us; even the mirror shows us in reverse” Trying to sound profound for the sake of sounding profound. I generally want my quotes to be from people who mattered, making statements that mattered, at the times that mattered. Not some bored retired old financial controller jotting down some nonsense in the middle of her morning coffee and cross word
I am too a bored soul who can make up random and extremely obvious “quotes” to fill a 30 second gap. I don’t think you are totally to blame, more so the publishers of your pathetic little statements. How you managed to sell these quotes is mind-boggling. Any of your quotes are a joke around the office, I think more to make ourselves feel better for wasting our time reading your short series of words – because that’s all they are – series of words strung together with no meaning, no eloquence, no substance and only of mild imagination if that, in fact more an observation. In short they’re really bad quotes. I, along with probably many others, have sent emails of complaint to the publisher of the desk calendars. For some reason they persist and now it has become more of a reason to feel shame for someone rather than to get annoyed for a poorly written quote that makes no sense. Please go and neck yourself, quickly! No one enjoys your quotes, everyone flicks past them in an attempt to forget you exist and you are obviously wasting yours and our time. Please leave us alone and keep your thoughts to yourself.
Apart from that, I’m sure you’re a lovely person and Perth is a wonderful city – go outside, enjoy it, then run into some traffic.
today’s quote:
“Our body cells renew themselves while we sleep; if only our wallets would do the same!” P.K. SHAW
Terrible. Just terrible.
hahaha…. i googled p.k shaw and found this. ha i love my quote calender.
This website is hilarious as an office worker clearly with nothing more interesting to do in the day than googling P.K. Shaw, but I have a question… One of the “quote websites” that came up when I did google P.K. Shaw said they were from Russia… I wonder if there is more than one or if the P.K. Shaw who is writing on this website (did they google themself as well?) is a fraud…
Ahh the mysteries of the internet.
I saw that website with Russia after my name and Iam just as puzzled as you are. Believe me, there is only one P.K. Shaw the quoter.
Here’s one of mine that PK Shaw can submit to the next Collins desk calender refill,(There are card players and there are people that play cards) PK Shaw quote is on Friday 1st August “There is more wisdom in humour then there is humour in wisdom.” I like it.
)
We spend half our lives afraid of living and half our lives afraid of dying. P.K Shaw
*Actually my wife came up with that one.
Chris, I don’t know where you got that quote from, but I didn’t write it. This is an all too common problem. I have seen quotes attributed to me that I did not write, and worse still, some of my quotes attributed to someone else. Once you put your work out there, you lose all control, copyright really doesn’t cover this area of writing.
Chopper, sorry to have taken so long to respond. I no longer have any connection with Collins Debden. I prepared the desk calendars for Collins including choice and allocation of quotations from 1994(for the 1996 desk calendar) to 2002 {for the 2004 desk calendar). During that period, I not only promoted my own work but the work of others who sent in their work, where possible. I suggest that you contact the Product Manager at Collins Debden by letter and submit your quote You will find the address in the Sydney White Pages.
Best of luck,
Pamela (P.K.Shaw)
I think it fitting to post the following information at this point. In brief, I started writing my “sayings”, that Collins called quotations, in the early 1970′s. By 1974 I found a market with a desk calendar manufacturer who were a subsidiary of Collins and the first batch of quotations, 12 in all, appeared on the 1976 desk calendar. Over the years there have been many changes in the printing industry, including takeovers and senior staff changes, but my “sayings” survived and are still currently appearing on the desk calendars. In all, I had written over 500 “sayings” many of which have since lost their topicality or were too similar to existing well-known quotes by well-known authors.I now have just over 300 on record. I haven’t written any new “sayings” since 2000 or so and have moved on to other interests.
P.K. Shaw
Before I leave this website, this one is for Remy. I generally want any criticism of my writing to come from people who matter.
Cheers!
How long will my coments be awaiting moderation?
This has shown 2 things:-
1. there’s way too many bored office workers not doing their work (me being one of them) and,
2. there isn’t enough wise people in the world to fill a yearly calender with truly great quotes.
Ummm, your readers matter, hellloooo!
I think i am going to make a shirt that says
“I <3 P.K. Shaw”
Lol, I stumbled across your blog in search of who P.K. Shaw is!!! I have a calendar also with little quotations. I read one by P.K and thought… hold up, I so don’t agree, that’s nor intelligent OR funny… So now I’m left wondering… Whooooooo is this elusive character? And why oh why is this elusive character so elsuive?
If shared problems lessen the burden, how come we get so upset in a traffic jam?
A joke, taken seriously, is no joke.
P.K. SHAW IS SO WISE.
P.K SHAW IS A MAN.. ITS PETER KING SHAW- HES A PROFESSOR WITH GREY HAIR AND A BEARD WHO USED TO TEACH PHILOSOPHY A UNIVERSITY. U LIE PAMELA!
LOL! I googled it too! I also think P.K. Shaw being a professor and teaching philopophy @ a University is much more likely much more worthy of his own quote space on a calender.. LOL .. hmm The Mystery Of P.K. Shaw.. He/she/it’s more famous than Confusious because of these calenders LOL
You’re a fraud Pamela
I suddenly feel so ‘average’ its making my skin crawl…
yet I still take solice in the knowledge that I’m not the only one who, while bored at work, was so offended by the inane-ness and utter mediocrity of a PK Shaw quote that they felt compelled to discover the identity of this purveyor of meaningless messages…