Tuesday, June 2, 2009

All for None, and None for All

From a letter to the editor in today's Star Tribune:

Insuring All Americans
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
I 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"?

3 comments:

David Steinlicht said...

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.")

Ms Sparrow said...

You have a good eye for catching those oddments. I read right past it without blinking.

Daughter Number Three said...

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?