"measuring the drapes"

[Ben Zimmer]

On Wed, Jun 11, 2014 at 8:13 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
> Now fully lexicalized.
>
> Gloria Borger on CNN: "Measuring the drapes is never a good political
> strategy."
>
> No explanatory antecedent, no ref. to where the "drapes" might be.

I looked into political drape-measuring back in '08:

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=763
http://www.vocabulary.com/articles/wordroutes/drapes-curtains-and-an-old-political-standby/

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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