"Rubber Room"

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

Today's Wall Street Journal reports that Detroit pays some people to do
nothing. They spend all day in what workers call a "rubber room."
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No OED cite for "rubber room"??
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HDAS?
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A very long time ago I wanted to go to "Romper Room." I wonder if it's in
the same house.
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(GOOGLE NEWS)
_Crucial aha! may save day_
(http://www.nydailynews.com/boroughs/story/386581p-328043c.html)
New York Daily News, NY -  <NOBR>Jan 29,
... He also was transferred to a  Department of Education "rubber room,"
where jammed-up teachers do  busy work while awaiting adjudication of legal
charges. ...
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(GOOGLE BLOGS)
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_Jobs Bank... or the Rubber Room_
(http://www.decheung.com/2006/03/jobs_bank_or_th.html)

5 hours ago
He  spent a week in what workers call the "rubber room." ... The  rest must
clock
time in the rubber room or something like it. It  is called the rubber room,
Mr.
Mellon says, because "a few days  in there makes you go crazy." ...
_decheung - The Dennis T Cheung Blog -  http://www.decheung.com/_
(http://www.decheung.com/)
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_The Union & UAW Legacy - Paying Employees Not to  Work_
(http://amateureconblog.blogspot.com/2006/03/union-uaw-legacy-paying-employees-not.html)
    1 hour ago by Christopher Meisenzahl
He spent a week in what workers call the 'rubber room.'  ... The rest must
clock
time in the rubber room or  something like it. It is called the rubber room,
Mr.
Mellon  says, because 'a few days in there makes you go crazy.'  ...
_The Amateur Economist &  Curmudgeon Blog -
http://amateureconblog.blogspot.com_ (http://amateureconblog.blogspot.com/)
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_Front Page Jobs Bank Embarrassment_
(http://kanban.blogspot.com/2006/03/front-page-jobs-bank-embarrassment.html)

2 hours ago by Mark Graban
"Every day for a  week Mr. Mellon got up at about 4:30 am to make the
45-minute
commute  to the rubber room from his home in Otisville, Mich." Now there is
some
real waste, from a societal standpoint. Not only are we not making  use of ...
_Lean Blog -  http://kanban.blogspot.com_ (http://kanban.blogspot.com/)
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(PROQUEST)
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_Of  Puppy Dog Tails and Joe Namath_
(http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=66&did=597625022&SrchMode=1&sid=1&Fmt=10&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=HNP&T
S=1141221594&clientId=65882)
Chicago Tribune  (1963-Current file). Chicago, Ill.: Sep 26, 1971. p. A5 (1
page)
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If he sees the right thing in the inkblot, he may go on  paying his taxes and
contributing to society. If he sees the wrong  thing--well, perhaps he'd be
more comfortable in a rubber  room.

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(GOOGLE)
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_http://www.morethings.com/music/porter_wagoner/the_rubber_room.htm_
(http://www.morethings.com/music/porter_wagoner/the_rubber_room.htm)

SONG TITLE: THE RUBBER ROOM
PERFORMER: PORTER WAGONER
SONGWRITER: PORTER WAGONER
YEAR OF RELEASE: 1972
I've been grooving on this very odd and infamous Porter Wagoner song from
1972, a little thing called "The Rubber Room." Best I can tell, it wasn't any
big hit, but Porter was near the top of his fame with the television show with
as many as several million viewers a week, so he managed to put the thing in
front of a lot of people. I would have been about nine at the time, and it
made  some freaky impression on me. It has sunk into obscurity since then, and
it took  weeks to find it even on P2P.

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