"Beat Around the Bush"

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

     Christine Ammer's AHDOI has:

_beat around the bush_  Also, _beat about the bush._  Approach indirectly, in
a round-about way, or too cautiously.  For example, _Stop beating around the
bush_--get to the point_.  This term, first recorded in 1572, originally may
have alluded to beating the bushes for game.

    That's what I always thought.  1572 probably takes it out of American
slang.  It does have a certain slang element, however--see the RHHDAS for
"bush."

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GOTHAM CENTER (continued)

    Pulitzer Prize winner Mike "Clueless" Wallace (now there's a nickname to
separate him from the 60 MINUTES guy) announced the Gotham Center for NYC
history on March 18, 2000 on the H-URBAN listserv:

http://www.unimelb.edu.au/infoserv/urban/hma/hurban/current/0455.htm