[Ads-l] Restricted access to "Stars and Stripes" and "The buck stops here"

[Robin Hamilton]

My own puzzlement is why it took so long for the original (1870s) "pass the 
buck" to evolve into (60 years later?) the seemingly obvious extension, "the 
buck stops here".

Which is, I think, the obverse of Dan's point, which is looking for an 
intermediary between the two phrases.

A bit like musical chairs, who's holding the buck when the music stops?

How many bucks were left, I wonder, when the music had to stop ...

Robin

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-----Original Message----- 
From: Dan Goncharoff
Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2015 9:00 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Restricted access to "Stars and Stripes" and "The buck stops 
here"

---------------------- Information from the mail 
header -----------------------
Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Poster:       Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Restricted access to "Stars and Stripes" and "The buck 
stops
              here"
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My questions is asking why 'not passing the buck' ended up as 'the BUCK
stops here'. I think the signs were an influence, especially for the BUCK
in full caps.

DanG

On Wed, Feb 11, 2015 at 3:52 PM, Robin Hamilton <
robin.hamilton3 at virginmedia.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Robin Hamilton <robin.hamilton3 at VIRGINMEDIA.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Restricted access to "Stars and Stripes" and "The buck
> stops
>               here"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Surely an extension of the earlier phrase, "pass the buck", for which see
> HDAS with examples from 1871.
>
> (Or has this been mentioned already?)
>
> [Or am I suffering from an irony/humour deficit problem?]
>
> Robin Hamilton
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Laurence Horn
> Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2015 8:29 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: Restricted access to "Stars and Stripes" and "The buck stops
> here"
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Restricted access to "Stars and Stripes" and "The buck
> stops
>               here"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Or maybe derived from deer crossing signs.  (Back when there were =
> separate crossings according to gender of deer.)
>
> LH
>
> On Feb 11, 2015, at 2:46 PM, Dan Goncharoff wrote:
>
> > Just a question: is the phrase "The Buck Stops Here" derived from the =
> bus
> > stop signs reading "The bus stops here"?
> >=20
> > DanG
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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