[Ads-l] 100 attaboys

[Andy Bach]

Huh. My Dad would say that too, using "one 'aw shit' " - he had mentioned
it was part of the "Good Sams" club. They, I believe, were some how
connected w/ camping/campers and would get "atta boys" markers on their
campers for good deeds.  He said, though, that one 'aw shit' and they've
have to take the attaboys down and start over.

On Tue, Dec 18, 2018 at 7:38 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Former Lt. Col. Ralph Peters on CNN notes "There's a saying in the Army,"
> which he went on "to clean up for your viewers": "One 'Oh, shucks' cancels
> one hundred 'Attaboys.'"
>
> Prosaically, "A single blunder outweighs one hundred laudable actions."
>
> Less than a dozen Google hits.
>
> 1995  Edward M. Marshall _Transforming the Way We Work_ [N.Y.: American
> Management Association] 35: Perhaps one of the most difficult work
> environments is one in which 'one mistake is worth 100 attaboys.' In a
> constantly changing work environment, it needs to be okay for people to
> make some mistakes.
>
> JL
>
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


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a

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