[...]has legs

[Grant Barrett]

On Monday, April 24, 2000, David Bergdahl <bergdahl at OAK.CATS.OHIOU.EDU>
wrote:
>On CBS's Sunday Morning piece on a choreographer/director (Susan ? who's
>doing Music Man & Contact now) was being interviewed by a Newsday drama
>critic; afterward the critic said on camera w/o Susan present that it
>remains to be seen whether Susan has legs.  In the financial press and
>on CNNfn or CNBC the meaning is the same: "staying power." A stock or an
>index's rise "has legs" if it is sustainable.  Now, my question: is the
>critic using the Wall St term with metaphorical intent or is it a term
>frequently heard on Broadway?  My one theater contact--a set
>designer--says she's never heard it.

I bet the critic is using the term in journalistic fashion: a hokey,
stretched, paper-thin attempt at wordplay. Seems to be the sign of the low-cal,
low-caliber journalists hired to fill all the new positions in the last ten
years on all the new cable stations and shows. I just don't think there's
enough good talent to go around, and newspaper people make some of the
worst television people of all.

[I freely admit to committing hokey wordplay. I, however, am not being
observed by tens of thousands of people. I think.]