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Usenet Posted 22 years ago
Usage
Raises all ships
Garrison Keillor has recently produced a piece about the GOP. He uses the phrase "raises all ships" thus:
"Once, it was the party of pragmatic Main Street businessmen in steel-rimmed spectacles who decried profligacy and waste, were devoted to their communities and supported the sort of prosperity that raises all ships."
The phrase has a resonance but is not familiar to me. Google shows the most common usage to be in the expression "a rising tide raises all ships". So the meaning is clear.
Few people seem to speculate on the origin. Those that do attribute it to JFK. I can't say I've heard it rightpondially.
Any conjectures as to origin?
John Dean
Oxford
"Once, it was the party of pragmatic Main Street businessmen in steel-rimmed spectacles who decried profligacy and waste, were devoted to their communities and supported the sort of prosperity that raises all ships."
The phrase has a resonance but is not familiar to me. Google shows the most common usage to be in the expression "a rising tide raises all ships". So the meaning is clear.
Few people seem to speculate on the origin. Those that do attribute it to JFK. I can't say I've heard it rightpondially.
Any conjectures as to origin?
John Dean
Oxford
Top answer
[nq:1]Garrison Keillor has recently produced a piece about the GOP. He uses the phrase "raises all ships" thus: "Once, it ... origin.
- [nq:1]Garrison Keillor has recently produced a piece about the GOP.
- He uses the phrase "raises all ships" thus: "Once, it ...
- origin.
- Those that do attribute it to JFK.
- I can't say I've heard it rightpondially.
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3 Answers
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[nq:1]Garrison Keillor has recently produced a piece about the GOP. He uses the phrase "raises all ships" thus: "Once, it ... origin. Those that do attribute it to JFK. I can't say I've heard it rightpondially. Any conjectures as to origin?[/nq]
It's usually given as "A rising tide lifts all boats", and that appears to have been the way Kennedy said it. The Uncommon Wisdom of John F. Kennedy:
It's usually given as "A rising tide lifts all boats", and that appears to have been the way Kennedy said it. The Uncommon Wisdom of John F. Kennedy:
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[nq:2]Garrison Keillor has recently produced a piece about the GOP. ... say I've heard it rightpondially. Any conjectures as to origin?[/nq]
[nq:1]It's usually given as "A rising tide lifts all boats", and that appears to have been the way Kennedy said ... access to a newspaper database from 1962 can check to see whether there was discussion about it when it happened.[/nq]
Bartleby.com quo
[nq:1]It's usually given as "A rising tide lifts all boats", and that appears to have been the way Kennedy said ... access to a newspaper database from 1962 can check to see whether there was discussion about it when it happened.[/nq]
Bartleby.com quo
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[nq:2]It's usually given as "A rising tide lifts all boats", ... see whether there was discussion about it when it happened.[/nq]
[nq:1]Bartleby.com quotes JFK, who himself says it was a local proverb: Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989. NUMBER: 1667 AUTHOR: John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-63) QUOTATION: As they say on my own Cape Cod, a rising tide lifts all the boats. And a
[nq:1]Bartleby.com quotes JFK, who himself says it was a local proverb: Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989. NUMBER: 1667 AUTHOR: John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-63) QUOTATION: As they say on my own Cape Cod, a rising tide lifts all the boats. And a
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