Word: pussyfooter
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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Curious is the fact that U. S. and British news organs, when libeling or exposing, make incessant use of such phrases as "alleged," "charged," "understood." Legally it is quite as libelous to pussyfoot, "John Doe is an alleged swindler," as to boldly print, "John Doe is a swindler." Psychological explanation: writers and editors feel safer when they pussyfoot, as do ostriches with heads in sand...
Where might be the-last-place-in-the-world that prohibition agents would look for a moonshine still? One such place might be the clump of trees in the field behind the barn on the farm belonging to Dry Crusader William Eugene ("pussyfoot") Johnson near Smithville Flats, N. Y. So thought some shrewd person. Last week, in the clump of trees in the field behind the barn of Crusader Johnson-who visits his farm only in the summer-State troopers found vats, stoves, coils and 14 copper boilers to contain 200 gallons...
...after magazine gives up its pages to discussions of the undergraduate and his alleged difficulties, it is only fair that some space should be given to those who are concerned no with the grades of four courses a year but with the results of all of them. While Mr. "Pussyfoot" Johnson hazards his opinion on college drinking, while the students busy themselves with more pressing problems, the old questions of how to administer a college are not as yet completely solved...
...Colleges are no worse than the rest of the country as regards wetness," said Pussyfoot, "Colleges are apt to have a reputation for being wet because the shortcomings of a few students get into the papers as typical of all students. If two or three college fellows get drunk and cause a fuss, the story can promptly be found in all the newspapers, but no mention is made of the 10,000 or 20,000 students who ostensibly do not drink. The whole country read the other day of the fraternity in a middle-western university that was found...
...Esthonia, Latvia, and Egypt, further reforms are being carried out by the young people, of which the few college students form a nucleus, Pussyfoot Johnson explained. Throughout all Europe there is an agitation for some form of prohibition. In France and Italy, doctors favor a regulation for medical and hygienic reasons, while in England and Germany, there is a feeling for some kind of regulation as a matter of public economy and efficiency...