[Ads-l] 100 attaboys

[Jonathan Lighter]

Former Lt. Col. Ralph Peters on CNN notes "There's a saying in the Army,"
which he went on "to clean up for your viewers": "One 'Oh, shucks' cancels
one hundred 'Attaboys.'"

Prosaically, "A single blunder outweighs one hundred laudable actions."

Less than a dozen Google hits.

1995  Edward M. Marshall _Transforming the Way We Work_ [N.Y.: American
Management Association] 35: Perhaps one of the most difficult work
environments is one in which 'one mistake is worth 100 attaboys.' In a
constantly changing work environment, it needs to be okay for people to
make some mistakes.

JL

"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org