The age-old maxim
Dan Goncharoff
thegonch at GMAIL.COM
Wed Aug 6 23:22:37 UTC 2014
"Watch the gap" is age old if you live on Lon Gisland and don't have a
passport. (It's what they say on the LIRR.)
DanG
On Wed, Aug 6, 2014 at 7:12 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
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> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject: The age-old maxim
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>
> Or at least as old as the London Underground.
>
> ABC World News tonight carried the story of the Australian commuter
> who got his foot caught between the platform and the subway car as he
> was entering. Through the efforts of dozens on the platform, men,
> women, and children, joining to push the car sufficiently away from
> the platform, he was freed. Uninjured, he boarded the next train to
> arrive. Heart-warming. but ...
>
> The ABC narrator ended with the advice to "remember the age-old
> maxim, 'watch the gap'."
>
> Well ...
>
> A little later, the CBS Evening News got it right. In a briefer
> report, the caption under the video was "Mind the gap". Anyone who
> has heard this intoned by a male voice of doom can hardly forget.
>
> Joel
>
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