"REARRANGING DECK CHAIRS ON THE TITANIC"

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 5/21/07, Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu> wrote:
>
> Perhaps another 1969 (?) use. Google book snippet view gives from
> Reports of the
> Tax Court of the United States "1969" page 606:
> ... ?than the proverbial rearrangement of the deck chairs on the Titanic. As a
> result, we conclude that petitioners did not actually receive direct benefits
> ...
> Possibly a point in favor of the 1969 (or earlier?) date is that the serial
> title ended in 1969. From 1970ff the title was Reports of the United
> States Tax Court.

If you take a look at the title page image given by Google Book
Search, you'll see it does indeed say "Reports of the United States
Tax Court." And if you squint a bit, you can just make out that this
is from Vol. 91, covering July 1 to December 31, 1988. (Confirmed by
searching for "1988" in the text.)


--Ben Zimmer

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