"Kitchen table "

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 9/12/06, Charles Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
>
> Three years prior to that--and surely even earlier--the "kitchen table" typified the
> site of such anxious family cogitations (though the phrase isn't bing used as an
> epithet):
>
> "They [pilots' union reps] are there, day and night, to answer questions and
> give advice and mutual support to make sure the strike isn't lost at the kitchen
> table when concerns about the mortgage begin to impinge on feelings of union
> loyalty." (Washington Post, 26 May 1985)

Similarly:

1982 _Syracuse Post Standard_ 29 Oct. A9/2 John's fist hit the kitchen
table when I told him the state Legislature invaded his privacy by
allowing the sale of the list some years ago. You should have been
there, Tarky, Mario, Tony and all the rest of you, for a lesson in
kitchen table politics.


--Ben Zimmer

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