new coinage?

[Beverly Flanigan]

At 04:10 PM 2/24/2005, you wrote:
> >>" under pressure to tow party lines".......taken from another list.
> >>Is this what you call an Eggcorn  ?  (It could have been an intentional
> >>coinage: I haven't asked the perpetrator.)
> >>A. Murie
> >
> >Yes, in fact "tow the line" (the more general version) is a bonified
> >charter member of the eggcorn club.
> >
> >larry
>~~~~~~~
>I love the images evoked:  in one case  "I've got a mule & her name is
>Sal...."; in another, the royal barge on the Thames & the strains of Handel
>playing from over the water......
>AM

Actually, we debated this origin some years ago.  It's between "tow the
flatboat/riverboat/barge" by horses and "toe the starting line" in a race,
as I recall.  Did "toe the line" necessarily win out?