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Just a little something that didn't make it into the Multnomah book:
Shadburne Malapropisms
Within county employee circles, Commissioner Gordon Shadburne earned a reputation as a lightweight who was difficult to work with, a knee-jerk opponent of progressive causes. His repeated slips of the tongue generated a light-hearted compilation by county employees of Shadburne malapropisms. Two finance office employees collected dozens of direct Shadburne quotes and shared the most amusing ones with allies (on their lunch hours, of course). Following are several of the quotes published by the finance duo: [i]
- “That would really open up Pandora’s can of worms.”
- “The reverse is the opposite, too.”
- “A property tax measure is staring down our necks.”
- “We’ve got to bite the bullet by the horns.”
- “A penny saved is worth its weight in gold.”
- “I’ve asked myself the question of when I would be willing to accept a strike over and over, and I get no answer.”
- “It’s neither fish nor fry.”
- “That’s a little brain-shout of mine that I was working for twenty years.”
- “When will we have another pulmonary session?"
- “Just between myself . . . .”
- “The Machiavellian finger of fate is pointed toward Troutdale.”
- “A piece of the puzzle doesn’t look too bad, then another puzzle, and another puzzle, and the next thing you know, you’re down at the railroad tracks.”
[i]“Foo(d) for Thought, The Collected Pronouncements of G. Shadburne,” gathered by county employees Dave Warren and Tom Fronk, with contributions
from Bill Vandeveer and many others, ca 1985.
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