Dorothy Parker tells me of the last time she encountered Playwright Clare Boothe. The two ladies were trying to get out of a doorway at the same time. Clare drew back and cracked, “Age before beauty, Miss Parker.” As Dotty swept out, she turned to the other guests and said. “Pearls before swine.”
Ira Gershwin got a teaching gig at Oxford. He was not happy trying to pass on musical wisdom to disinterested kids. He told a friend, "I feel like I'm casting fake pearls before real swine."