"ground zero" = ?

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

The metamorphosis of the underlying semantics of the term "ground
zero" was triggered by the enormously influential movie critics of the
SCTV Farm Film Report, John Candy and Joe Flaherty. The reviewers
became ecstatic when discussing films which depicted things which
"blowed up real good".  Zabriskie Point by the auteur Michelangelo
Antonioni was a seminal work that was embraced by Candy and Flaherty
and dictated a transformational understanding of the phrase "ground
zero". Here is the primal clip available on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHkvD7-u7y8

The relationship between intact objects and detonation was creatively
re-imagined, and a new positive sense for "ground zero" emerged. A
Google search reveals examples of the new semantics:

1) Downtown is ground zero for fun this Saturday & Sunday
2) We consider home the base, ground zero for happiness and success in life.
3) Let's start with ground zero for love, shall we?


On Tue, Mar 5, 2013 at 7:20 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "ground zero" = ?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>> "the central point in an area of fast change or intense activity."
>
> Pretty much what I was afraid of.
>
> Or perhaps "a dramatic focal point."
>
> Well, I suppose the original Ground Zero fit that description, didn't it?
>
> JL
>
> On Tue, Mar 5, 2013 at 7:06 PM, Nathaniel Sharpe <nts at bethlehembooks.com>wrote:
>
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>> Poster:       Nathaniel Sharpe <nts at BETHLEHEMBOOKS.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: "ground zero" = ?
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> In the years following the Columbine shootings, "ground zero for gun
>> control" was a common phrase, appearing frequently in connection with
>> the state of Colorado.  The intended sense of "ground zero" seems to be
>> "the central point in an area of fast change or intense activity."
>>
>> March 01, 2000 FreeColorado.com
>> Originally, the Million Mom March was supposed to take place in
>> Washington, D.C. Now, it looks like they may focus on Denver. As The
>> Rocky Mountain News reports (March 1):
>>
>>      [T]he local chapter announced this week that its efforts are now
>> focused on a Denver march.
>>
>>      "Colorado has become ground zero," said state coordinator Kathleen
>> Hopkins. "If we send 14 people to national instead of 14,000 that's
>> fine. We need 75,000 here."
>> http://www.freecolorado.com/1999/01/shorts.html
>>
>> March 07, 2000 - LA Times
>> To many in Colorado--viewed by some groups around the nation as the
>> current Ground Zero for gun control issues--the shared stage was a
>> hopeful sign that in the wake of last April's Columbine High School
>> shootings the issue of gun violence would be seriously addressed.
>> http://articles.latimes.com/2000/mar/07/news/mn-6272
>>
>> May 15, 2000 New York Times
>> "You may have heard that Colorado is ground zero in the gun debate," Mr.
>> Mauser declared. "You bet it is. And we're going to show the rest of the
>> nation how you respond to it."
>> http://partners.nytimes.com/library/national/051500moms-guns.html
>>
>>
>> On 3/5/2013 7:38 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
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>> > Sender:       American Dialect Society<ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter<wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>> > Subject:      "ground zero" = ?
>> >
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >
>> >  From Yahoo! News. The meaning, please:
>> > "Background checks may be ground zero for gun control.
>> > "An expanded background check system may be the one major gun control
>> measure
>> > with a chance of passing through Congress, but its fate seems tenuous at
>> > best."
>> >
>> > JL
>> >
>> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
>> truth."
>> >
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>>
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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