_bell can't be unrung_?

[Jerome Foster]

A senator from Arkansas used it this am in the Rumsfeld hearings...

jfoster
----- Original Message -----
From: "Baker, John" <JMB at STRADLEY.COM>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Friday, May 07, 2004 3:26 PM
Subject: Re: _bell can't be unrung_?


> ---------------------- Information from the mail
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Baker, John" <JMB at STRADLEY.COM>
> Subject:      Re: _bell can't be unrung_?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
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>
>         Maybe the poster also heard the NPR interview?  The unrung bell is
a metaphor that's been around for a while (I can take it to 1933), and my
quick check indicates that it is not experiencing any dramatic resurgence in
vitality (e.g., only 11 uses this year in Westlaw's allnewsplus database).
>
> John Baker
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
> Of Sam Clements
> Sent: Friday, May 07, 2004 5:32 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: _bell can't be unrung_?
>
>
> OK.  I've been asleep.  I just read a thread over at Straightdope, where a
poster said "of course, the bell can't be unrung now."   That by itself
wouldn't have caused me to wonder, but I  heard an interview on NPR this
morning where virtually the same phrase was used(which obviously stayed in
my mind).
>
> I understand the meaning.  But, did someone just send out instructions by
email that this is the phrase for May, or am I just living in my own little
world.  Some of you who read more/listen more than I may know.  Any ideas
who must have kicked off the (soon-to-be overused) phrase recently?
>
> Sam Clements
>