Re: Is this an idiom you're using in earnest?
I'm not aware that the expression is in wide use. I inherited it from a colleague who, following a meeting with senior management back when the BDS merger was being negotiated, reported that several people in attendance walked across the street at its close to buy lottery tickets at the Chinese grocer, in hopes of bailing in advance of what everyone could now see was going to be a clusterfuck. You are correct that when I refer to transactions of this character (in which I do not ordinarily indulge) I am feeling more than usually peevish toward my masters here.
My brother was once mocked by a colleague who observed him making such a purchase. "Do you have any idea what the odds are against your winning that jackpot?" "Nothing like as long," he replied equably, "as they are against my ever seeing that kind of money through honest toil."
cordially,
My brother was once mocked by a colleague who observed him making such a purchase. "Do you have any idea what the odds are against your winning that jackpot?" "Nothing like as long," he replied equably, "as they are against my ever seeing that kind of money through honest toil."
cordially,
