"tooth and neck"

[Joel S. Berson]

At 9/17/2008 10:45 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>At 7:37 AM -0700 9/17/08, Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:
>>Jeff Shaumeyer, on his blog (http://bearcastle.com/blog/?p=1245)
>>reporting on "tooth and neck" in an episode of This American Life on
>>NPR:
>>it happened about 8 minutes and 41 seconds into the piece. One Mike
>>Garner, of Silver State Mortgage in Nevada, was talking about how Wall
>>Street kept lowering its standards for mortgage qualification in order
>>to increase the number of mortgages written to feed the investment
>>monster. They were so desperate that they finally worked their way
>>down to the "NINA", or "No Income-No Assets', apparently AKA "the
>>liar's loan". Garner, speaking of his boss, who thought this was
>>financial craziness, said
>>
>>"He hated those loans  He fought the owners and sales force tooth and
>>neck about these guidelines."
>>
>>.....
>>
>>jeff googled up a few more (legitimate) examples.
>>
>>blend of "tooth and nail" and "neck and neck", maybe.
>Seems like a plausible candidate for an online
>blend.  On the other hand, maybe if this catches
>on it will be reanalyzed as "fought [them] tooth
>in neck", pitbull-style...

Or as an allusion to the bankers and mortgage brokers as vampires?

Joel

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