language at the Health Care Summit

[Alison Murie]

On Mar 2, 2010, at 12:46 AM, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: language at the Health Care Summit
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> Now on Word Routes:
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> http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/2191/
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>
> On Fri, Feb 26, 2010 at 3:21 PM, Victor Steinbok
> <aardvark66 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Well, THAT happened.
>>
>> I did assume that he made a simple switch, but it was too good to
>> ignore.
>>
>>    VS-)
>>
>> On 2/26/2010 2:44 PM, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>>> On Thu, Feb 25, 2010 at 12:51 PM, victor steinbok<aardvark66 at gmail.com
>>> >  wrote:
>>>
>>>> Eric Cantor, a few seconds ago: We have a bridge to gap
>>>>
>>>> I am wondering what it's going to look like in the transcript.
>>>>
>>> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/25/AR2010022503128.html
>>> "We, again, have a very difficult bridge to gap here, because I know
>>> that this is something that we don't want to look at."
>>>
>>> Confirmed by audio here:
>>> http://www.c-spanarchives.org/program/292260-1
>>>
>>> But Cantor later tweeted:
>>>
>>> http://twitter.com/GOPWhip/status/9638256321
>>> "We have a very difficult gap to bridge here. We just can't afford
>>> this. That's the ultimate problem."
>>>
>>>
>>> --Ben Zimmer
~~~~~~~~~~
It may not have  been at the health care circus, but in some context
concerning the dolorous state of affairs for the many who have been
hard hit by current conditions, I heard a woman winding up an account
of losses (of job, health, money, house,&c.) with the words "we're
circling the drain."  This is a new one to me.  Do others know it?
AM

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