We host a lot of policy meetings for my job and the facilitators want us to (almost always) replace "but" with "and". That version would look like "What you said made me really angry and I am sorry I yelled at you." No reason to put those two thoughts in opposition if both are true.
"I'm sorry." No ifs, ands or buts.
I am sorry my comment wasn't strictly on topic. No doubt the moderators will be by shortly to clean that up.
"And" doesn't put the conjoined thoughts on an equal footing, as in the famous example "I got drunk and I drove home".
"I'm sorry I yelled at you and what you said made me really angry" seems inferior to the reversed order, as found in comment one.
Anyway, Henley seems right at least as quoted.
5: Plus, if you change the "and" to a period, you have an entry in the six-word story genre.
Angered, I yelled. Sorry. (Your fault.)
Sorry, but fuck you. Fuck you, but I'm sorry.
I guess the latter is nicer, if incoherent. Henley is smart.
9 should be read like Jimi's Anger he smiles. It doesn't work part the first 3 words, but sometimes that's enough.
That was meant sincerely. Henley is smart!
One problem (a different issue) is that at least 85% of the time "I'm sorry" means "I'm not sorry."
Henley's Rule of Butts 2: He Who Comes Last
Shit should that have been "He Who Comes Last Dominates"?
"I'm sorry I shot your wife, Buttafuoco"
"I've always believed that you say the qualifier first. If you say, 'Now, let's make it plain: the first priority must be that no one who is depending on that for their non-earning years should have it taken away from him, or have it endangered. It is endangered today by the shape that it is in.' So you then can go on and say, 'Now, the program is out of balance. Down the line someplace, can come a very great tragedy of finding the cupboard is bare. Before that happens, let's fix Social Security.' "
Or, on the subject of welfare: " ' Now, I am not suggesting that we stop welfare tomorrow. So, having qualified with that, let me say, I just have faith in the American people that, if through some set of circumstances welfare disappeared tomorrow, no one would miss a meal. The people in this country, in every community all over, would get together and form emergency committees, and take up the slack. Those are the kind of people they are.' "
Henley's Rule of Buts has a parity problem. As in, "I'm sorry, but I applied Henley's Rule of Buts an even number of times," versus, "I applied Henley's Rule of Buts an odd number of times, but I'm sorry."
The nation was astonished when Ronald Reagan shot Joey Buttafuoco, but Joey was surprised.
Henley is smart! I have no idea how capable I would be of putting this approach into practice in the moment, though.
Does anybody else get a "Fatal error" message when they click on the link? I get this message however I try to get to Henley's blog.
You did, you did and I thank you
But you didn't have to love me like you did.
That butt you got make me so horny
but my homeboys tried to warn me.
I was going to do just the cleverest transposition of the parts of the plums poem for Neb but it turns out there's no but in there. I thought there was a but. I am sorry.
I have long nurtured the ambition to write a song about my native country with the chorus "And 'sorry''s just the English for 'Fuck off'"
Seriously, a Cambridge NYC dictionary would have
Sorry Fuck You
Oh shit. All angle brackets stripped out.
Design of darkness to appall, but what?--
If design govern in a thing so small.
But design of darkness to appal, what?
I like this: "Jim's Rule of Buts is about proportion, and being aware just where you are bestowing your grace. We have a deep impulse to bestow it on ourselves, at others' expense, without even realizing it."
I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, but the woods are lovely, dark and deep.
38: It is, and it jumped out at me too. I'm trying to keep it in mind more generally.