"Nothing to lose"

[Jonathan Lighter]

But my way's better.

  JL

Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Laurence Horn
Subject: Re: "Nothing to lose"
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>Like, there's only one possible outcome that can foil your try, and
>that's "failure." So you got, like, just one way to lose but X ways
>to win, if you follow me. So the odds are way on your side, dude!
>
> Reminds me of, "Freedom's just another name

another *word* (as I'm sure Fred's compendium will verify)

> for nothin' left to lose."
>
> Say what?
>
> JL
>
>Wilson Gray wrote:
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>-----------------------
>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: Wilson Gray
>Subject: "Nothing to lose"
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Benjamin Barrett wrote:
>
>"... [T]here was _nothing to lose_."
>
>The usual way of expressing this concept in Saint Louis BE is:
>
>"Nothing beats a try but a failure."
>
>For some reason, this has always messed with my mind, since the
>"obvious" interpretation is that "a failure beats a try," a statement
>whose truth is undeniable. Yet, the saying is always used and
>understood as though it meant, "There's nothing to lose." And, when
>you think about it, it *does* mean that! If you don't try, the only
>possible outcome is failure, whereas, if you try, you may succeed or
>you may fail. But, if you fail, it matters not (oddly, using "it
>doesn't matter" was most unhip in the Saint Louis of my youth),
>because, in any case, _there was nothing to lose_.
>
>-Wilson
>--
>All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
>come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>-----
>-Sam'l Clemens
>
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