"Stop digging."

[Ben Zimmer]

On Sun, Oct 10, 2010 at 12:20 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
> From GB snippets:
>
> 1986 Robert Fritz _The Path of Least Resistance_  (Salem, Mass.: DMA) 30:
> The President of DMA, Inc., Dr. Kalen Hammann, has said, "if you find
> yourself in a hole, stop digging." If you prematurely attempt to make the
> shift to the orientation of the creative, motivated by the discomfort of
> circumstantial stimuli, you are merely digging yourself into a deeper hole.
>
> WorldCat shows a 1984 edition that GB does not.  Innumerable RGs, others
> with "when."

See Barry Popik's page, with cites back to 1983 (attributed to British
politician Denis Healey):

http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/when_youre_in_a_hole_stop_digging_first_law_of_holes/

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org