Maddened by Mad Men

[ronbutters at AOL.COM]

Why is it necessary to report minor personal annoyances? And why, if something is "needless to say," would one add to the endless clutter by actually saying that it is to say that it is needless say?

Sent from my iPad

On Sep 20, 2011, at 5:44 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:

> On Tue, Sep 20, 2011 at 4:57 PM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
>> Isn't this just an example of the phrasal verb "to hold down," documented by the OED back to 1891 and by now well established in phrases such as "to hold down a job"?
>>
>
> Whatever the origin of "hold _down_ the fort," the phrase is still an
> annoyance to some of us.
>
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
> to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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