"Kitchen table "

[Charles Doyle]

Three years prior to that--and surely even earlier--the "kitchen table" typified the site of such anxious family cogitations (though the phrase isn't bing used as an epithet):

"They [pilots' union reps] are there, day and night, to answer questions and give advice and mutual support to make sure the strike isn't lost at the kitchen table when concerns about the mortgage begin to impinge on feelings of union loyalty." (Washington Post, 26 May 1985)

--Charlie
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>
>The earliest example on Nexis is the following:
>
>1988 _Chicago Tribune_ 3 Feb. (Nexis)  "These issues affect every American," said Sarah Harder, president of the American Association of University Women.  "Let us think about them as kitchen-table issues.  They come from the center of family life. ... To every candidate, we say the kitchen tables of America are ready and waiting for 1988.  Ignore them at your own peril."
>
>Fred Shapiro

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