"Don't just do something...."

[Jonathan Lighter]

CNN person: "There's a joke on Wall Street: 'Don't just do something, Stand
there.'"  In other words, don't take part in a buying or selling panic.

But it isn't just on Wall Street. GB reveals thousands of exx., with varying
nuances.

The earliest is allegedly from Newsweek, vol. 45 (1955). I can't verify the
date, but the snippet congruously mentions Gwen Verdon in _Damn Yankees_:

"...once made a rehearsal director shout, 'Don't just do something! Stand
there!'"

The phrase appears regularly since the mid '50s.

JL

--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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