"goat rodeo"

[Joel S. Berson]

Referring to the struggle among the candidates in the Republican
primaries, John Avlon of The Daily Beast closes his article with
"This goat rodeo is going to go on for a long time. Bet on it."
http://news.yahoo.com/gops-primary-calendar-chaos-094500587.html

Not in the OED yet.  One definition in Urban Dictionary is "A chaotic
situation, often one that involves several people, each with a
different agenda/vision/perception of what's going on; a situation
that is very difficult, despite energy and efforts, to instill any
sense or order into."  About 1,800,000 Google Everything hits, some
false positives.  About 152 in GBooks, including some which are
literally goat rodeos and one being a company selling video displays
(in the year 2000).

Earliest in GBooks looks like 2001.

Sharkman Six, by Owen West, p. 62:  "I'm also hoping that he is fast
understanding what a goat rodeo it became down here, re- porters sent
to a potentially dangerous landing beach by the NSA before we even
arrived."  [Apparently about Vietnam.]

Another 2001 puts "goat rodeo" among games such as volleyball and
touch football.

I'm imagining the roundup at a cat rodeo -- or cat-tle drive.

Joel

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