hiking the Appalachian trail (was Re: went walkabout)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

(Changed subject line to avoid any further thread-drift confusion.)

On Wed, Jun 24, 2009 at 4:15 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>
>
> At 3:54 PM -0400 6/24/09, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
> >On Wed, Jun 24, 2009 at 3:48 PM, Laurence Horn<laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> >>
> >>  I wonder if "go walkabout" (or "hike the Appalachian Trail") will now
> >>  become established as a euphemism:
> >
> >The latter was suggested by a Talking Points Memo reader yesterday,
> >before the full story emerged:
> >
> >http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/06/coining_a_phrase.php
> >
> Wow, that's impressive on SP's part--coining a euphemism before
> anyone even knew what it was a euphemism *for*.  Next time I go off
> to Argentina for an illicit weekend with my lover there, I'll
> certainly know what to tell my family (and the press) I was doing!

This is clearly a euphemism with legs...

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/06/never-miss-a-euphemism.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-folman/finally-a-new-euphemism_b_220568.html
http://open.salon.com/blog/the_suburban_guerilla/2009/06/24/euphemisms_or_thank_you_governor_sanford
http://www.woot.com/Blog/ViewEntry.aspx?Id=8612
http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=23012

The Twitterers are all over this:
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%22Appalachian+Trail%22

And Josh Marshall of TPM is now using it instead of just talking about it:

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/06/if_nothing_else_weve_learned.php
"That's not to say that some high profile Dems haven't been found
Hiking the Appalachian Trail in recent years. John Edwards and Eliot
Spitzer come immediately to mind."

--Ben Zimmer

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