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figure 1

 

bird dog minute.Immediately. At least as fast as a New York Minute.reference 1

William Safire did the front end of one of his language columns on this phrase that, apparently, only Hillary and Bill Clinton have used publicly. Safire quotes Clinton doing an as-they-say-in-Arkansas attribution. Since Safire could not corroborate it, the inference I draw from his column is that it may or may not be something said by someone other than Hillary, but who knows for sure? The best he can do for us is the unattributed “alliterative Southern expression…busy as a bird dog.”reference 2

If it was worth some inches for Safire, I figure it's worth an entry here.

1. Safire, William. 2008. Bird-Dog Minute. New York Times Magazine. Accessed May 21 2008 from http:// www.nytimes.com/ 2008/ 02/ 24/ magazine/ 24wwlnSafire-t.html.

2. Ibid.

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About the illustration: Collaged by the author from images courtesy © 2008 Jupiterimages Corporation.
see also: bird dog
cf: dog's age
Last updated: June 6, 2008
by Alec MacLeod 2001-2008  Dogmatic Technologies Oakland Creative Commons unless otherwise expressly stated, all original material of whatever nature created by Alec MacLeod and included in The Canine in Conversation and any related pages, is licensed under a Creative Commons License. Please read the Terms of Use Agreement by Alec MacLeod Dogmatic Technologies