"Stop digging."

[Eric Nielsen]

Not Will Rogers?

Eric

On Sun, Oct 10, 2010 at 6:14 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "Stop digging."
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I think it goes back further:
>
> http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=3DGYAsAAAAIBAJ&sjid=3DFM0EAAAAIBAJ&dq=
> =3Dwhen-you-re-in-a-hole&pg=3D2234%2C5162593
>
> The Spartanburg Herald
> September 26, 1977
>
> On (sic) wry spinoff of the Bert Lance affair was the comment of ranking
> bu=
> t
> unnamed Washington official who mentioned to the Wall Street Journal that
> the Carter administration needs to learn "the rules of holes." By that he
> meant that the often counterproductive efforts of Carter staffers to
> protec=
> t
> the embattled budget director ran counter to the rule: "When you're in a
> hole, you don't keep digging."
>
> DanG
>
> On Sun, Oct 10, 2010 at 5:28 PM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu
> >wrote=
> :
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> > Subject:      Re: "Stop digging."
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> ------
> >
> > The files of the Yale Book of Modern Proverbs have the following earliest
> > version:
> >
> > 1981  Washington Post 16 Nov.  =93At Rochester and in junior hockey (at
> > Saskatoon), we had some tough times.  But when you=92re in a hole,
> don=92=
> t dig
> > it deeper.=94
>  >
> > Fred Shapiro
> >
> >
> >
> > ________________________________________
> >
>

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