guess = bet

[Laurence Horn]

At 1:48 PM -0400 5/5/10, victor steinbok wrote:
>Michael Bloomberg:
>
>http://bit.ly/cGWbPR
>"_If_I_had_to_guess_25_cents_, this would be exactly that. Homegrown,
>or maybe a mentally deranged person, or somebody with a political
>agenda that doesn't like the health care bill or something. It could
>be anything."
>
Null hypothesis, without checking google for other instances:  online
blend of "If I had to guess" and "If I had to bet a quarter".  (It's
odd that he uses 25 cents rather than a quarter or a dollar or
whatever, but Bloomberg has a few billion dollars more in his
financial empire than I have in mine, so who I am I to question his
betting technique?)

LH

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org