Surgical Strike (1968); Martini Lunch (1959); Ballpark Figure (1964)
Bapopik at AOL.COM
Bapopik at AOL.COM
Wed Dec 4 09:40:58 UTC 2002
A few political terms I plugged into the WASHINGTON POST full text
database yesterday. It's 3 a.m., but I just had a six-hour nap, so here
goes.
The VILLAGE VOICE likes to be "politically correct." but why not just be
correct? The latest issue is out, and there is still no correction to its
statement that "nutty as a fruitcake" was coined in 1935. Ah, nothing
changes for me.
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SURGICAL STRIKE
It was believed that the 1981 Israeli strike against Iraq coined this
term, but it was first used for Vietnam.
14 April 1968, WASHINGTON POST, pg. B1:
As a further influence on policy makers I would cite the factor of
_bureaucratic detachment_. By this I mean what at best might be termed the
professional callousness of the surgeon (and, indeed, medical lingo--the
"surgical strike" for instance--seemed to crop up in the euphemisms of the
times).
In Washington, the semantics of the military muted the reality of war for
the civilian policy makers. In quiet, air-conditioned, thick-carpeted rooms,
such terms as "systematic pressure," "armed reconnaisance," "targets of
opportunity" and even "body count" seemed to breed a sort of games-theory
detachment.
19 January 1969, WASHINGTON POST, pg. 193:
They urged not air raids on the missile sites but, for purposes of
scholarly gloss, a "surgical strike."
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MARTINI LUNCH
O.T.: In my "pretzel" letter food posting about the 90th anniversary of
the pretzel, I left off the date of the letter (May 12, 1951).
25 October 1959, WASHINGTON POST, pg. C14:
_Yoga Expert Copes_
_With Martini Lunch_
COPENHAGEN (UPI) Copenhagen business has run smack up against the problem
of those "three too many" martinis or acquavits at executive luncheons--and
has decided to do something about it.
14 August 1960, WASHINGTON POST, pg. B11:
Has any other city in the world developed the four-martini lunch to such a
wonderfully insane, totally human degree?
("Old Pluperfect On the Hudson," or New York City, is the title of the
story--ed.)
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SOUFFLE RISE TWICE
I don't know what Fred Shapiro has cooking on this.
16 December 1955, WASHINGTON POST, George Sokolsky column, pg. 21
It has been repeated that Alice Longworth, the most intelligent of living
Roosevelts, once said of Thomas E. Dewey, "who ever saw a souffle rise
twice?" I did not verify the remark because it is too good to question. it
can apply as well to Adlai Stevenson.
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BALLPARK FIGURE
17 May 1964, WASHINGTON POST, pg. A1:
Yesterday, Administration officials called this a "ball park figure never
considered binding." But they did draw attention to McNamara's White House
press conference on Thursday.
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FOGGY BOTTOM
26 April 1883, WASHINGTON POST, pg. 4:
He would take Anderson's heart to Foggy Bottom that night.
15 January 1928, WASHINGTON POST, pg. SM10:
_Picturesque Names_
_Identified Sections_
_"Murder Bay," "Hell's Bottom"_
_and "Bloodfield," Part of_
_Nomenclature._
(...)
Another tough place was "Herring Hill" in Georgetwon. It overhung Rock
Creek Valley. "Foggy Bottom," a region whose center would be perhaps
Twenty-second and E streets northwest, and "Pipetown," east of Eleventh
street southeast, and north of the Eastern Branch, made famous by John Philip
Sousa's novel, "Pipetown Sandy," are names that have now become as extinct as
"Bloodfield," in South Washington.
("Foggy Bottom" is extinct? You never know when someone will revive a word
or phrase or name--ed.)
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BETTER RED THAN DEAD & BETTER DEAD THAN RED
12 July 1961, WASHINGTON POST, pg. A17:
It was no accident that he chose to aim his crudest menaces at the British
Ambassador, in whose country the sentiment, "better Red than dead," has
gained wider currency than elsewhere in the West.
(I don't have TIMES OF LONDON full text from my home computer to check
now--ed.)
18 October 1961, WASHINGTON POST, pg. A17:
_These Days_
_Better Dead Than Red_
(...)
As an example take the motto, "Better Dead than Red," now beginning to
crop up on bumper stickers.
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JOHN Q. PUBLIC
I'd found this in the 1920s, in a sports column.
2 January 1930, WASHINGTON POST, pg. 1:
...it was 12:30 o'clock before the President could take time out to grab a
sandwich and a cup of coffeeand be back on the line to start greeting Mr. and
Mrs. John Q. Public promptly at 1 o'clock.
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NERVOUS NELLIE
The RHHDAS has "orig. in derisive ref. to Frank B. Kellogg, Secretary of
State 1925-29." Cites are 1926, then 1944. There's no early hit here,
unless I missed it.
12 December 1937, WASHINGTON POST, pg. B2:
And "Nervous Nellie" Kellogg, Nobel Prize winner, able and spindly-legged.
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THINK TANK
Not the RAND version, but two early ones. OED has 1905?
19 August 1890, WASHINGTON POST, pg. 4:
The Omaha _World-Herald_, referring to the newspaper men in attendance
upon the recent Democratic convention in Nebraska, calls them the "big think
tanks" of the State. The word "think" in this connection suggests the
possibility of a typographical error on the part of an esteemed compositor.
13 August 1895, WASHINGTON POST, Baseball Notes, pg. 6:
Outfielder Anderson is something of a disappointment to the Brooklyn
management. He is a fine sticker, but lacks a balance wheel in his "think
tank."
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IF IT AIN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT
23 December 1976, WASHINGTON POST, pg. A11:
_Budget-Boss Lance: "If It_
_Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It"_
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MOVING THE GOAL POSTS
4 February 1978, WASHINGTON POST, pg. C12:
"They keep moving the goal posts," he lamented. "We're not afraid of
deregulation, though, " he said, "if they really took off all the wraps."
(Albert V. Casey, chairman and president of American Airlines--ed.)
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EDIFICE COMPLEX
There's also a 1957 hit, but I like this cite.
12 August 1959, WASHINGTON POST, pg. A12:
_Edifice Complex_
"Yes, this building has a great deal of taste," Frank Lloyd Wright once
remarked blandly while inspecting a new structure, "but all of it is bad."
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GLASS CEILING
This was 1986-1998. Just the citation is given, without a photo of the
page.
"The Different Natures and Needs of Women" by Norman Podhoretz, WASHINGTON
POST, 20 August 1986, pg. A19.
OED has 1984, but perhaps Podhoretz got a quote from the person who coined
it.
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MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE RANCH
That's it? A few months better than the NEW YORK TIMES in 1956? LOS
ANGELES TIMES full text, please help!
5 April 1956, WASHINGTON POST, pg. 53:
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the Nats were on a treadmill.
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