[Ads-l] circular firing squad

Thu Jul 13 03:18:30 UTC 2017

Great work, JL and Bill. Here is a slightly earlier instance of the idea.

Date: June 28, 1972
Newspaper: St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Newspaper Location: St. Louis, Missouri
Article: Thorny Issues Sidestepped In Pro-McGovern Platform
Author: Lawrence E. Taylor (A Washington Correspondent of the Post-Dispatch)
Quote Page 2A, Column 1
Database: Newspapers.com

[Begin excerpt]
In short, as one committee member put it, "We refuted the joke that
when reform Democrats are told to organize a firing squad they stand
in a circle."
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Wed, Jul 12, 2017 at 10:49 AM, MULLINS, WILLIAM D (Bill) CIV USARMY
RDECOM AMRDEC (US) <william.d.mullins18.civ at mail.mil> wrote:
> _Las Vegas [NM] Daily Optic_ Mar 23 1973 p 2 col 1 [Newspapers.com, Newspaperarchive.com]
> "It is imperative that if we do not integrate we must -- at the least -- synchronize our lives; otherwise we will form a circular firing squad in which members of the squad will kill all that is worthwhile within the circle  as well as themselves  in the crossfire."
>
> Newspapers.com has "firing squad in a circle" from 1975
> Newspaperarchive.com has "Polish firing squad in a circle" from 11/17/1973.
>
>> Not yet in OED.
>>
>> GB claims a 1983 ex., but I can't verify it.
>>
>> [1983 Allan Fotheringham _Look Ma - No Hands: An Affectionate Look at Our Wonderful Tories__ [Toronto: Key Porter] 89: There is no
>> discipline, no cohesion, merely a collection of individuals who march (out-of-step) to drummers hidden in the hills, beckoning the faithful to
>> form a firing squad in a circle.]
>>
>> 1984 David G. Broder, in _Plain Dealer_ [Cleveland] (Jan. 19) 38: Democrats form circular firing squad....Up here, it looked like the
>> Democrats were going back to their old habit of lining up the firing squad in a circle.
>>
>> The first time I encountered the concept was ca1977-78, during the fad for "Polish jokes." It was something like, "Where does a Polish firing
>> squad put the condemned man? In the middle of the circle."
>>
>> GB has a similar joke (with "Polish firing squad") from 1979.
>>
>> JL
>
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