"capitalize on" = 'correct'? 'make up for'?

[Jonathan Lighter]

I've heard this before on TV at some time. My take is "learn from."

You know, turn it into an asset?

Reminds me of the BP spokesman who implied some weeks ago that the oil
disaster was partly a good thing because it showed exactly what we needed to
plan, invent, manufacture, etc., to fix it.

JL

On Wed, Jul 21, 2010 at 3:48 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      "capitalize on" = 'correct'? 'make up for'?
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Boston Red Sox outfielder after physical and mental errors
> contributed to their losing last night's game 5-4 to the Oakland A's:
>
> "The disappointment is we lost the game," Cameron said. "We had a
> chance to pick up some ground and we didn't. We've got to try to come
> back out and try to capitalize on some of the mistakes we made."
>
> LH
>
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>



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