But for (from ID TV)

[David A. Daniel]

It's backwards, eh? "There but for fortune go you or I" indicates fortune
intervened to keep something bad from happening. Not sure what that TV quote
indicates, though it seems that someone is trying to say that a killer and
victim were brought together, rather than kept apart, by a random internet
search. Yes? People get stuff backwards a lot. I just watched a Letterman,
with Dr. Phil as guest. (We get Letterman on two weeks delay here.)
Letterman was saying that he figures if he is screwing up his 8-year-old
son, it won't be his problem because he's old and will be dead. "It'll be
the stepfather's problem." Dr. Phil twice used "predecessor" to refer to the
stepfather, the one coming AFTER Letterman. "You mean if you screw up your
kid now it will be your predecessor's problem?" After the first time, I kept
waiting for him to correct himself, but then he said it again!
DAD



Poster:       "Hunter, Lynne R CIV SPAWARSYSCEN-PACIFIC, 71700"
              <lynne.hunter at NAVY.MIL>
Subject:      But for (from ID TV)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---

"It was but for a random Internet search that the two [killer and
victim] were brought together."


Lynne Hunter

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

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