"Kitchen table "

[Charles Doyle]

Saturday I heard someone being interviewed on PBS who repeatedly used the phrase "kitchen table issues."  It was new to me--though Google gives several hundred instances of similar "kitchen table" locutions.

The epithet "kitchen table" seems to signify "of concern to ordinary (American?) folks (or maybe families)."  I don't know whether the metonomy "kitchen table" invites us to visualize an earnest married couple in leisurely confabulation after supper--or a harried single mom desperately trying to persuade her unruly children to eat their vegetables so they can stay healthy, since they have no health insurance.

--Charlie

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