"come-to-Jesus meeting"

[Wilson Gray]

I know that feeling only too well. Once, I was chatting with a
younger colleague about cool places to hang out. I told him that
there was a place in town so hip that, on its oldies jukebox, it had
the original *black-American* version of "I'm Into Something Good"
and not the years-later Brit cover by Herman & The Hermits and
awaited his amazed reaction. When his only response was "Uh-huh," it
suddenly struck me that this kid's parents probably didn't meet till
a couple of years after the time period that I was discussing. Hence,
he had no clue as to what I was babbling about. Now I let
quarter-century-old children tell *me* what's fresh.

-Wilson

>---------------------- Information from the mail header
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>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
>Subject:      Re: "come-to-Jesus meeting"
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Make that "more than twenty and probably a generation."
>
>It has come to this....
>
>JL
>
>Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU> wrote:
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
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>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: Benjamin Zimmer
>Subject: Re: "come-to-Jesus meeting"
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>On Thu, 17 Mar 2005 14:50:49 -0600, Mullins, Bill
>wrote:
>
>>ProQuest Hist Newspapers has a 12/2000 NYT example.
>>
>>Factiva has numerous examples, the earliest being:
>>
>>FATAL NEGLECT Terri Rahn / To keep her kids, she tries to end patterns
>>of past
>>Paul McEnroe;
>>23 July 1989 p. 01A
>>"Crossing her means facing her wrath in what she calls a "Come to Jesus"
>>meeting. "
>
>Nexis has it from 1983:
>
>-----
>Can Don Lennox Save Harvester?
>Business Week, August 15, 1983, p. 80
>
>Lennox insists that he pushes his subordinates to express opinions that
>contradict his own. "There have been major disagreements on some issues
>about what should be done," he says. "I encourage people to disagree and
>discuss their viewpoints. On the other hand," he adds, "I'm not running a
>come-to-Jesus meeting here."
>-----
>
>See also Wendalyn Nichols' discussion on "The Mavens' Word of the Day",
>though she was unable to trace the expression back very far:
>
>http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=20001218
>
>
>--Ben Zimmer
>
>
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