Word (phrase?) of the year? - "double down"

[Joel S. Berson]

As usual, I'm behind the ball.  But I am wondering about the
blackjack explanation.  My unquestionably uncertain recollection is
that one can double down after two cards only when they are
identical, and that doing so allows any number of additional cards to
be dealt to each pile.  Having played blackjack for money only once,
I am probably wrong.

Joel

At 9/18/2012 02:30 PM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
>On Tue, Sep 18, 2012 at 2:21 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> >
> > As Mitt Romney is said to have done in his hastily-arranged press
> > conference in California yesterday evening.  And at other times, and
> > as others have been accused of doing.
>
>See my latest Word Routes column for more:
>
>http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/why-is-everyone-doubling-down/
>
>--bgz
>
>--
>Ben Zimmer
>http://benzimmer.com/
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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