A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

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Entry from May 16, 2011
“Ask an atheist who’s just had a great meal if he believes there’s a cook”

“The best reply to an atheist is to give him a good dinner and ask him if he believes there is a cook,” wrote attorney and author Louis Nizer (1902-1994) on August 17, 1945, in a syndicated newspaper column about columnists. The quotation is still used (although not often credited to anyone) and was a favorite of Ronald Reagan (1911-2004).
 
   
Wikipedia: Louis Nizer
Louis Nizer (February 6, 1902 in London - November 10, 1994 in New York City) was a noted Jewish-American trial lawyer and senior partner of the law firm Phillips Nizer Benjamin Krim & Ballon. He represented many celebrities in a variety of cases, among them Quentin Reynolds in his successful libel suit against columnist Westbrook Pegler, and the broadcaster John Henry Faulk against AWARE, a right-wing organization that had falsely labeled him a communist.
 
A graduate of Columbia College and Columbia Law School, he wrote several books, among them the best-selling “My Life In Court” in 1962, about many of his famous cases, which spent many weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. He also wrote “The Implosion Conspiracy” in 1972, a study of the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg espionage case. He died at the age 92 in New York City, having continued to work at his firm until 10 days before his death.
(...)
Works
“Between You and Me” (1948)
   
Google Books
Catholic Digest
Volume 9
1945
Pg. 21:
A good reply to an atheist is to give him a good dinner and ask him if he believes there is a cook.
Louis Nizer in the Minneapolis Daily Times (17 Aug. ‘45)
 
17 August 1945, Kingsport (TN) News, “Nizer Ex-Rays a Columnist” by Louis Nizer, pg. 4, col. 7:
5. He must be a religionist who realizes that religion is caught, not taught. As for example:
The best reply to an atheist is to give him a good dinner and ask him if he believes there is a cook.
   
Google Books
The Reader’s Digest
Volume 87
1965
Pg. 122:
The best reply to an atheist is to give him a good dinner and ask him if he believes there is a cook.
—Louis Nizer, Between You and Me
 
New York (NY) Times
Moscow Summit: Preaching to the Unconverted; Excerpts From Reagan Talks to Dissidents and at Monastery democracy.
AP
Published: May 31, 1988
Following are excerpts from President Reagan’s remarks today at Spaso House, where he met with Soviet dissidents, and at Danilov Monastery: Remarks to Dissidents
(...)
Could I play a little trick on you and say something that isn’t written here. Sometimes, when I’m faced with an unbeliever, an atheist, I am tempted to invite him to the greatest gourmet dinner that one could ever serve. And when we’ve finished eating that magnificent dinner, to ask him if he believes there’s a cook.
   
Google Books
14,000 Quips & Quotes:
For speakers, writers, editors, preachers, and teachers

By E. C. McKenzie
Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House
1990, ©1980
Pg. 28:
A good question for an atheist is to serve him a delicious meal and then ask him if he believes there is a cook.
 
The Notes:
Ronald Reagan’s Private Collection of Stories and Wisdom

By Ronald Reagan
Edited by Douglas Brinkley
New York, NY: HarperCollins
2011
Pg. 202:
Ask an atheist who’s just had a great meal if he believes there’s a cook.

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New York CityFood/Drink • Monday, May 16, 2011 • Permalink


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