I need answers

Since Bush wants to "Stay the Course" I need a list of people/events where someone stayed the course and had disastrous consequences.

1. Thelma & Louise
2. Titanic
3. Custer
4. Donner Party

would make a much better subject line for this thread, imho.

Vague subject lines that have nothing to do with the thread are one of my pet peaves.


As to your request, a number of mountain climbers come to mind who kept on pushing up to summit and never came down again. George Mallory may be the most famous. David Sharp was another recent example that got a lot of attention. There have been many more.

When are you going to be teaching the class on how to write subject line threads? I am sure the whole forum will be signing up for that class.....

for those you are trying to communicate with. So does your hostile reaction to my constructive criticism, so at least you're being consistent. However, who am I to prevent you from 'staying the course' in your posting style if you think it works well for you? ;-)

in WWII, and that was pretty much a mistake.

Emperor Napoleon's Grand Armée marched into Czar Alexander's Russia in 1812. Le Grand Armée was cut in half by losses sustained in the first two months of the march into Russia, before the major battle took place. Within five months of the start of the campaign, what began as a force of over 650,000 frontline troops was reduced to a fraction of that: fewer than 40,000 escaped in the retreat to return to France.

They stayed the course. In fact almost all of them are still there, six feet under.

I think there are two things we need to concentrate on between now and November and that is to keep the Katrina fuck up on top of our news and the Iraqi War mess. Nothing else really should be important to the candidates and to all Democrats than those two issues. Forget immigration. Forget gay marriage. Forget Roe vs. Wade. Don't let the RW get those points out anymore. We need to talk only about Katrina and the Iraq War, over and over again just like they do, except that we don't have to spin anything or lie about it.

That would help to find agreement on the meaning of the phrase. Most lexicographers from the 1800s to the present seem to think it means "to hold out or persevere to the end of a race or challenge", to cite Dictionary.com (however, date given there for first attestation is nearly 80 years too late).

The biggest problem with the phrase is knowing when you've reached 'the end'. "Courses" tend to have a clear beginning and a clear end. Frequently with a flag or a ribbon that you break. In Iraq, without a definition of what the end of the course is, you're stuck.

Define the course properly, and we could have stay the course and still be out of Iraq by next weekend.

I don't think Thelma & Louise really stayed the course, but most of the Donner party did by not taking T&L's way out. The Titanic certainly did not stay the course since it never reached port, and I'm doubtful that Custer finished his task. Of course, if by 'staying the course' you mean 'living until dying', then it's trivial: they all fit the definition.

A growing number seem to take it as "to hold to the same course (of action)". Maybe in 20 years it'll clearly have that meaning. Right now it's still getting fuzzier, not clearer, in usage.

The use of 'stay' without a preposition is archaic, to be sure; one used to be able to say 'he stayed the service' or 'he stayed the performance', meaning 'for the duration of' the service of performance.

My quibble over a definition, with a brief excursus on a detail in the history of English, has concluded.

dessert. Other than that, how about the Charge of the Light Brigade guys? How about Ford Motor Co.

dp

The Bushido code (I probably spelled that wrong) that caused them to not surrender was almost Stay the Course personified. They would fight to the last man no matter what.

Just my opinion.