wearing the mantlepiece

[Wilson Gray]

I'm with Larry that the mantelpiece is over the fireplace and not
around it. In Saint Louis, every fireplace and mantelpiece that I ever
saw was marble. Here in Boston - in my very own apartment, in fact -
the exterior fireplace is surrounded by wood and the mantelpiece
itself is made of wood.

-Wilson

On 3/27/07, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: wearing the mantlepiece
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 9:14 PM -0400 3/27/07, William Salmon wrote:
> >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
>
> Yeah, hardly seems like a conservative practice as depicted here.
> Maybe we should photoshop Fred Thompson's head for the young lady's
> and see if it fits.
>
> I'm pretty sure the only kind of mantelpiece there is is indeed the
> kind over the fireplace, but since that's encountered more often
> (lexically) than the actual mantle (conservative or otherwise), it's
> a reasonably natural reanalysis.
>
> LH
>
> >
> >
> >>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
> >>
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> >
> >
> >
> >~Will Salmon
> >
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>
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