From a letter to the editor in today's Star Tribune:
Insuring All AmericansI second Roseann's thought... although I do wonder about the "carrot-on-a-stick" just a bit. Is that a State Fair reference, or a misuse of "the carrot or the stick"?
Denying It to Congress Is a Good Place to Start
Instead of 20 more years of carrot-on-a-stick political rhetoric promising every American access to the same health care insurance coverage offered to members of Congress, why not have the same members of Congress relinquish their taxpayer-funded health care coverage -- temporarily -- until every American has access to affordable health care coverage?
-- Roseann Pluimer, Bloomington
3 comments:
D#3,
Ooh! Ooh! Hobbyhorse of mine!
"Carrot or stick."
"Carrot and stick."
"Carrot on stick."
When I first heard the saying I am certain it was "Carrot and stick."
It was used in the context of a horse-drawn wagon driver hanging a carrot on a piece of string tied to the end of a long stick, the carrot dangling in front of the nose of a belligerent horse in order to get the horse to go forward. Motivation, just out of reach.
Every time I hear someone use the phrase "Carrot OR stick" -- meaning, apparently, reward or punishment -- I want to correct them. But honestly, I don't know if I'm right.
And now the phrase has mutated again, to "Carrot on stick."
Next up? "Carrotstick."
--David (Have I posted about this already? I have to stop obsessing about "Carrot and stick.")
You have a good eye for catching those oddments. I read right past it without blinking.
When I first wrote the post, I had phrased it "carrot and stick," but then when I was looking around for info on "carrot on a stick" I found the linked page from an English professor at Washington State University, Paul Brians, and he never even mentioned "carrot and stick" -- just "the carrot or the stick."
I'm pretty sure I've always heard it "carrot and stick" as well. Possibly a regionalism?
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