Ahh, Shoot!

[Wilson Gray]

When New Interstate 5 opened in California, the roadside signs read
something like:

Need gas?
Next fill-up 89 Miles


At that time, the freeway was just two strips of concrete across the
desert and only a few of the richest - are there any poor ones? -
petroleum companies had had time to put working filling stations into
place. Old I-5 was lined with competing stations.

-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.
-----
-Mark Twain



On Sat, Nov 29, 2008 at 7:13 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Ahh, Shoot!
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 11/29/2008 02:05 PM, Doug Harris wrote:
>>Something I've heard frighteningly frequently of late is what you
>>might call a mix-mastered metaphor -- one given such a shake or stir
>>that sense ends up sorely abused: "far and few between."
>>So far, unfortunately, I haven't heard it in a situation where I
>>could comfortably ask the speaker precisely what s/he means by that phrase.
>
> Perhaps "nearly the last gas station for the next many miles"?  (As
> one in Watertown, about 3/4 of a mile from the border, famously says,
> "Last gas before Cambridge.")
>
> Joel
>
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