Fwd: On the nose

[Alice Faber]

Smells so bad???

Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:
> a puzzling usage sent on by john lawler.  anyone have any insight
> into it?
>
> please reply to john (address below) as well as to the list.
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
>> From: "Lawler, John" <jlawler at umich.edu>
>> Date: November 3, 2006 6:34:38 PM PST
>> To: "Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at csli.stanford.edu>
>> Subject: On the nose
>>
>> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> From 'The Australian', November 04, 2006
>> http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/
>> 0,20867,20695919-28737,00.html
>>
>> Eight lying in wait
>>
>> Tuesday's vote has implications for the 2008 US presidential
>> election, writes New York correspondent David Nason
>> -----
>>
>> THREE weeks ago, Bill Clinton's former political svengali James
>> "Ragin' Cajun" Carville said the smartest thing the Democrats
>> could do in the run-up to the mid-term elections was to go out and
>> borrow $US10 million.
>>
>> Carville's theory was that the Democrats already had the 20 most
>> vulnerable Republican seats in the bag, so they should borrow up
>> big and shovel cash into the next 30, the so-called second and
>> third-tier contests.
>>
>> The mood on Main Street, Carville said, was unmistakable. George
>> W. Bush's handling of the Iraq war was so on the nose that 50 or
>> more House of Representative seats could go blue. With the
>> Democrats needing just 15 Republican scalps for a majority, it was
>> the opportunity of a lifetime.
>>
>> ...
>> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  "George W. Bush's handling of the Iraq war was so [on the nose]
>>   that 50 or more House of Representative seats could go blue."
>>
>> "ON THE NOSE?"
>>
>> This must mean something COMPLETELY different
>> in Australia than it does in the U.S.  But I've
>> never heard or seen it used this way before.
>>
>> This clearly isn't the racing metaphor used in
>> the U.S.  What metaphor is it, then?
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org


--
======================================================================
Alice Faber                                     faber at haskins.yale.edu
Haskins Laboratories                          tel: (203) 865-6163 x258
New Haven, CT 06511 USA                             fax (203) 865-8963

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