"slippery slope"

[Beverly Flanigan]

At 04:39 PM 6/27/2003 -0400, you wrote:
>At 4:09 PM -0400 6/27/03, Baker, John wrote:
>>         I note that the 1857 usage is different from the usual one,
>>where "slippery slope" refers to an initial step that, it is argued,
>>must lead inexorably to a drastic outcome.
>>
>>John Baker
>
>Right.  More like "the greased flagpole of fortune".

Or the mountain slope Sisyphus rolls the rock up to no avail.



>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Kathleen E. Miller [mailto:millerk at NYTIMES.COM]
>>Sent: Friday, June 27, 2003 2:58 PM
>>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>Subject: Re: "slippery slope"
>>
>>Researched this for Safire 2002.
>>
>>Found 1857, "Chamber's Journal," When the educated person of the middle
>>class is reduced to pennilessness ...what but gives him the desire to
>>struggle again up the slippery slope of fortune?"
>>
>>You can find it on Cornell's Making of America.
>>
>>
>>Kathleen E. Miller
>>Research Assistant to William Safire
>>The New York Times