letter bomb

[Wilson Gray]

Victor writes,

"... getting to the fore ..."

Isn't the cliché

"... coming to the fore ..."?

-Wilson

On Sat, Feb 20, 2010 at 4:34 AM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      letter bomb
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I've long suspected that "letter bomb" was used for all explosive
> devices sent through the mail, but this is getting to the fore with the
> Ame Bishop case. That there is a perfectly utilizable term "mail bomb"
> that's been around for over 100 does not seem to stop anyone. Worse, we
> now have "parcel bomb" as well.
> http://bit.ly/bXiJka
>
> There are two major cases right now that generate "letter bomb" news
> hits--one is the 1993 parcel sent to one of Bishop's professors and
> another where a Toronto target was injured after opening "a large
> envelope". The latter is at least an envelope. But, in the 1993 case,
> the package was a box--and some stories reported that had the target
> opened the package from the side rather than from the top, the
> assassination attempt would have succeeded. With two pipe bombs inside,
> that does not sound like a description of an envelope.
>
> http://bit.ly/bkpVTs
> Report: Bishop Suspect In Newton Mail Bomb Attempt
> Feb 14, 2010 6:18 pm US/Eastern
> wbztv.com
>> Back in 1993 Dr. Paul Rosenberg opened a package containing two pipe
>> bombs in his Newton home. Because Rosenberg *cut open the box rather
>> than lifting its flaps*, the bombs did not detonate. Nobody was ever
>> arrested.
>
> http://bit.ly/aWSPc3
> Prof speaks out on '93 bombing
> By Laurel J. Sweet and Laura Crimaldi
> Boston Herald
> Friday, February 19, 2010
>> A Newton neurologist broke his silence yesterday about his close call
>> with *a letter bomb*, as federal authorities scrambled to retrieve the
>> archived files of their investigation of Amy Bishop and her husband in
>> that unsolved 1993 case.
>
> http://bit.ly/b1mtft
> Amy Bishop reportedly suspected in 1993 Harvard *letter bomb*
> February 15, 4:10 PM
> The Examiner
>> Amy Bishop, the University of Alabama-Huntsville professor accused of
>> killing three colleagues, was reportedly a suspect in a 1993 *letter
>> bomb* aimed at a Harvard Medical School professor.
>
> http://bit.ly/bwIS8P
> Alabama professor Amy Bishop, accused of killing three colleagues,
> reportedly eyed for *letter bomb*
> BY BILL HUTCHINSON
> February 15 2010, 5:16 PM
> NY Daily News
>> A psycho professor accused of gunning down three colleagues at
>> the University of Alabama was reportedly a prime suspect in a 1993
>> *letter bomb* mailed to a Harvard Medical School professor.
>
> http://bit.ly/9oEMur
> Three major loose strands in Bishop case
> Dan Kennedy
> February 18, 2010 at 9:30 am
> Media Nation
>> 2. Who sent *a letter bomb* to Harvard Medical School professor Paul
>> Rosenberg in 1993? Bishop's husband, James Anderson, says he and
>> Bishop were questioned and cleared. But there was never an arrest. And
>> now Anderson has been caught saying something rather suspicious.
>
>
> To make matters worse, there is now a series of headlines that refer to
> scandalous or sensational letters as "letter bombs".
>
> http://bit.ly/aUJo1e
> Ex-CEC's *letter bomb* against Chawla released
> 8  Feb 2010, 0407 hrs IST, ET Bureau
> The Economic Times (India)
>> The law ministry has released former chief electioncommissioner (CEC)
>> N Gopalaswami's letter to the President seeking ouster of Mr Navin
>> Chawla from the body for "lack of political neutrality". Mr Chawla,
>> who was election commissioner (EC) when *the letter was written* and
>> is now the CEC, had asked Rashtrapati Bhawan not to make the January
>> 2009 communication public.
>
> In fact, there need not even be a letter.
>
> http://bit.ly/cqpsCz
> Bullz-Eye's TCA 2010 Winter Press Tour Wrap-Up: Simon Signs, Conan
> Conquers, and Patrick Stewart Just Plain Rules
> 01/28/10 08:30 AM
> TV.com
>> A few days later, the **** really hit the fan...and, man, you cannot
>> /imagine/ the electricity that was coursing through the room when
>> Conan dropped *his hell-no-we-won't-go letter bomb*. (I swear, Bill
>> Carter of The New York Times was literally /glowing/.)
>
> There is even broader metaphorical usage:
>
> http://bit.ly/byV0lT
> The Postals
> By Robert Duffy
> Sunday, Feb. 7, 2010
> San Diego Reader
>> San Diego punk quartet the Postals has finally signed, sealed, and
>> delivered its debut, jamming 17 songs into 26 minutes. On opening, the
>> incendiary instrumental "7.62 Madness" *goes off like a letter bomb*
>> and sets the tone for the ensuing fallout.
>
> [Why not "goes off like an IED"? Or not "goes off like a Connecticut
> power plant"?]
>
> Alternatively, it may be a letter, but not an explosive one.
>
> http://bit.ly/cJtA7Z
> Man admits sending *hoax letter bomb* to St Albans bank
> 5:30pm 17 February 2010
>  From St Albans & Harpenden Review
>> A wannabe letter bomber has confessed to sending *a hoax noxious
>> substance* through the post to a St Albans bank. Jayesh Vekeria, 24,
>> admitted sending *a bag of corn starch* to his former line manager,
>> Susan Castell, at the Abbey Bank in Grosvenor Road on November 30,
>> 2007, intending her to think it was a toxic chemical.
>
>
> Finally, another use is in dumping "letters" as if "bombing" something.
>
> http://bit.ly/9wG8hf
> Crazy Teabagger *Letterbomb* Unleashed on Upper West Side
> Jan 27, 2010 05:30 PM
> Gawker
>> Someone has *dumped thousands of crazy anti-Obama fliers* all over
>> 68th and Broadway on the Upper West Side of New York. They are very,
>> very crazy fliers, and there are a lot of them.
>
> The bottom line is that "letter bomb" has come a long way from "an
> envelope containing an explosive device designed to detonate when the
> envelope is opened by the recipient".
>
> Oh, and if anyone wants to date the phrase, here's something to think
> about (RHD 2010 dates it to 1945-50, Wiki traces mail-bombs back to
> 1764, as well reproducing an article on a bomb send to Mme Tussauds in
> 1889, but neither used the term)
>
> http://bit.ly/bZ8PAG
> Time: A Monthly Miscellany of Interesting and Amusing Literature, Vol.
> VII. London, July 1882
> John Baker Hopkins. By the Waters of Babylon, Chapter XII.
> p. 437
>> Mrs. Alstein alluded to a scheme of the revolutionists, to send
>> through the post letters containing matter that would explode when the
>> envelope was opened. Bruin *boasted of inventing a letter-bomb that
>> would not explode until the letter was opened*. If a dozen officials
>> lost their sight or were otherwise seriously injusred, there would
>> afterwards be very little post-office letter opening.
>
> Interestingly, there are no other legitimate GB and GNA hits until 1947.
>
>     VS-)
>
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>



--
-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

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