Tas Soft Wind?? Anyone?

February 27, 2009 6:53 PM

Who is (was?) Tas Soft Wind? A few quotes have been attributed to Tas Soft Wind, one of the most notable being "I like her because she smiles at me," and tonight a friend asked me if I could find biographical info on this person. I'm not at work (the library) so I don't have access to the other sources I might have checked, so, naturally, I Googled - to no avail, I'm ashamed to say. I was directed to several quotations sites, a frightening number of porn sites (?), and quite a few link farms, but no bio info. I tried several other meta and specialized engines with no result. And now that I can't find the answer, I am dying to know. Anyone? (Also, if you find the answer via Google or somesuch, I would LOVE to know what you used for a search string!) Thanks!
posted by coollibrarian to Writing & Language (11 answers total)

Response by poster: OK, good, it's not just me, then. I have just searched several biography databases with no luck. Looks like the answer might exist primarily in PRINT! GASP! Guess I know what I'm doing tomorrow...
posted by coollibrarian at 7:38 PM on February 27, 2009

I searched in Jstor and Project MUSE and came up empty. Also, something else that occurred to me is that sometimes Tas is an abbreviation for Thomas. Good luck tomorrow!
posted by tractorfeed at 8:20 PM on February 27, 2009

I couldn't find anything either, and nothing before about 2003 in any dated source. I have a suspicion that this is spurious, either as a result of a typo or munged line break, or possibly as some kind of misdirection/pseudonym on the order of an anagram.

I found a couple of quotes attributed to Tas Soft Wind that are also attributed to Terri Guillemets, owner of the website The Quote Garden -- which site has nothing attributed to Tas Soft Wind. Coincidence?
posted by dhartung at 9:43 PM on February 27, 2009

Found it here, but without any explanation of who the hell Tas Soft Wind is.
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:45 PM on February 27, 2009

Response by poster: Tractor, I tried that, no dice, but I hadn't thought of that so thanks for the tip!

dhartung, that's more lead than I have - I may contact her. I did try a number of spellings (nothing) and even an anagram engine (943 anagrams so....). But yes, at this point I agree, this probably isn't a real person.
posted by coollibrarian at 9:56 PM on February 27, 2009

I don't wish to sound snarky but...

What is so notable about the phrase, "I like her because she smiles at me"? Seems rather prosaic to me...
posted by Zé Pequeno at 2:36 AM on February 28, 2009

Response by poster: Ze Pequeno - I meant "notable" in relation to Tas Soft Wind and the fact that that quote was the one that most often turned up attributed to her/him in a search. It was not a comment on the "quality" of the quote....
posted by coollibrarian at 5:52 AM on February 28, 2009

The full quote is "I like her because she smiles at me and means it," and if you google that you find it's attributed to "Anonymous" as often as the mysterious TSW, for what that's worth.
posted by languagehat at 8:57 AM on February 28, 2009

The only Amazon Book search result - Quoted in a book on scrapbooking

The only Google books result - the smile quote in some book on intimate massage. Nothing displayed on the actual book's page, because of copyright issues.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 10:03 AM on February 28, 2009

I don't think it's a real name/person. All these TSW quotes are alternatively attributed to "Anonymous." I bet that somewhere along the line, some website erroneously associated that name with a page full of Anonymous quotes and it propagated from there.
posted by meta_eli at 10:18 AM on March 1, 2009

I have the most maddening impression that this was used as a quote on Boston Legal. My memory of it is of Alan Shore (James Spader) saying it when asked why he liked or was attracted to a particular woman. I could be wildly wrong about that, and I certainly can't find a reference anywhere.
posted by planetthoughtful at 10:28 PM on March 1, 2009