More Dathonian English

"If you build it, he will come." "Field of Dreams" (1989).

In this rather mawkish schmaltzfest, Kevin Costner plays a farmer who, while wandering his cornfield, hears a voice in the wind saying "If you build it, he will come." Logically, he concludes that this means that, if he builds a baseball field in his cornfield, "Shoeless" Joe Jackson and the other members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox (also known as the "Black Sox" for their role in fixing the World Series) will come and play there.

Of course! What else could it mean?

Anyway, though the movie itself doesn't get much play these days, the line lives on. It often shows up in the corporate world when people debate the relative merits of undertaking some project:

"Should we open another Starbucks in San Diego?"

"Well, if you build it, they will come."

Sometimes, for humorous effect, other transitive verbs may be substituted:

"Should I make some noodle kugel?"

"Well, if you bake it, they will come."

The line is often employed ironically, to imply that the person proposing an undertaking displays misplaced quasi-mystical faith in the merits of the project. Sure, in "Field of Dreams" Shoeless Joe shows up--as does (spoiler alert!) Costner's father, who is, in fact, the "he" the voice was referring to all along. But such Hollywood endings are the stuff of celluloid and cannot be counted on in everyday life.