Sunday, January 28, 2007

That Pesky Woodpile Inhabitant Again

We read:

"A chief executive at one of the UK's largest financial services companies has apologised for using the phrase "n*gger in the woodpile".

Trevor Matthews, head of Standard Life's life and pensions business, made the comment at a staff presentation at its Edinburgh headquarters on Monday.

Matthews has posted an apology on the company's internal website and said the comment was "a terrible mistake".

Source

To the best of my recollection, the expression comes from an old story in which a black thief hid in a woodpile -- a story from those dim faroff days when you were allowed to criticize anyone you wanted to.

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