wearing the mantlepiece

[William Salmon]

Strange. There are plenty of relevant hits for "the conservative mantle"
though.

I'd always thought of "mantlepiece" as refering to the wooden frame
around a fire place. In that case, wearing the mantlepiece would
conjure an image like that of a yoked ox. Or maybe like this one:
http://www.geocities.com/westhollywood/heights/9417/yoke.jpg



> Tonight on CNN around an hour ago a report on the ascendancy of Fred
> Thompson, who has rocketed up in the polls for Republican
> presidential candidates, although not yet announced, apparently on
> the strength of his tough prosecutorial expertise as DA on "Law and
> Order", along with his opposition to gun control, abortion, and
> same-sex marriage.  The reporter explained that his climb in the
> numbers was partly attributable to the fact that nobody else had
> taken the conservative mantlepiece.
>
> I checked the wikipedia entry on mantle-wearing--
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantle
> --and while many capes are featured, there was nary a mantelpiece in
> sight.  Very odd.
>
> (Actually, on reflection, the verb might not have been "take" but
> "hold the conservative mantelpiece"--but its object was definitely
> "the conservative mantelpiece", which curiously has no google hits
> yet.)
>
> LH
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



~Will Salmon

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