"deck chairs on the Titanic"

[Stephen Goranson]

Fred antedated "rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic" with "like switching
deck chairs on the Titanic," April 5, 1970. Bill antedated that with "shuffling
deck chairs on the Titanic," Dec. 29, 1969.

Possibly--or possibly not--these were influenced by January 17, 1969 reports in
both the Washington Post and NY Times quoting Liz Carpenter of the Johnson
administration: "There are already a lot of new faces in the White House.
All the new people want an office close to the President's. You should see them
scramble; it's like fighting for a deck chair on the Titanic."

Stephen Goranson
http://www.duke.edu/~goranson

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