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Usenet Posted 23 years ago
Usage
The wrong place at the wrong time
I often hear this phrase and I wonder if it's excessive. While I can conceive it possible to be in the "wrong place at the wrong time", I wonder if people are generally using the double wrong as an emphatic.
In most cases, whether someone is in the right place is measured by the events taking place. Thus, if it's midnight and I'm asleep in my bed, I'm arguably in the right place. If an airplane drops out of the sky and crashes through the roof killing me, one could say either that I was in the right place at the wrong time or the wrong place at that time.
Do two wrongs make a right here?
PE
In most cases, whether someone is in the right place is measured by the events taking place. Thus, if it's midnight and I'm asleep in my bed, I'm arguably in the right place. If an airplane drops out of the sky and crashes through the roof killing me, one could say either that I was in the right place at the wrong time or the wrong place at that time.
Do two wrongs make a right here?
PE
Top answer
[nq:1]I often hear this phrase and I wonder if it's excessive. While I can conceive it possible to be in ... right place at the wrong time or the wrong place at that time.
- [nq:1]I often hear this phrase and I wonder if it's excessive.
- While I can conceive it possible to be in ...
- right place at the wrong time or the wrong place at that time.
- [/nq] I could care less.
- ) I apologize for offering a meta-response, but this "wrong time - wrong place" phrase is a classic set phrase, or idiom, to which logic does not apply.
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45 Answers
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[nq:1]I often hear this phrase and I wonder if it's excessive. While I can conceive it possible to be in ... right place at the wrong time or the wrong place at that time. Do two wrongs make a right here?[/nq]
I could care less. (Take that, Rushtown.)
I apologize for offering a meta-response, but this "wrong time - wrong place" phrase is a classic set phrase, or idiom, to which logic does
I could care less. (Take that, Rushtown.)
I apologize for offering a meta-response, but this "wrong time - wrong place" phrase is a classic set phrase, or idiom, to which logic does
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[nq:1]I often hear this phrase and I wonder if it's excessive. While I can conceive it possible to be in ... right place at the wrong time or the wrong place at that time. Do two wrongs make a right here?[/nq]
Lighten up, Esposito.
Gary Eickmeier
Lighten up, Esposito.
Gary Eickmeier
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[nq:1]I often hear this phrase and I wonder if it's excessive. While I can conceive it possible to be in the "wrong place at the wrong time", I wonder if people are generally using the double wrong as an emphatic.[/nq]
I suspect that this common absurdity arises from unthinking analogy with "the right place at the right time". There is, of course, no right time to be in the wrong place, so cal
I suspect that this common absurdity arises from unthinking analogy with "the right place at the right time". There is, of course, no right time to be in the wrong place, so cal
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[nq:2]I often hear this phrase and I wonder if it's ... people are generally using the double wrong as an emphatic.[/nq]
[nq:1]I suspect that this common absurdity arises from unthinking analogy with "the right place at the right time". There is, ... information. Logically, it ought to be either "in the right place at the time" or "there at the wrong time".[/nq]
Verily, yet evenso, cannot,
[nq:1]I suspect that this common absurdity arises from unthinking analogy with "the right place at the right time". There is, ... information. Logically, it ought to be either "in the right place at the time" or "there at the wrong time".[/nq]
Verily, yet evenso, cannot,
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[nq:1]I often hear this phrase and I wonder if it's excessive. While I can conceive it possible to be in the "wrong place at the wrong time", I wonder if people are generally using the double wrong as an emphatic.[/nq]
I don't think so - I think they're saying that being somewhere else at the same time would not be significant, and* that being at the same place some other time would not be
I don't think so - I think they're saying that being somewhere else at the same time would not be significant, and* that being at the same place some other time would not be
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[nq:2]I often hear this phrase and I wonder if it's ... at that time. Do two wrongs make a right here?[/nq]
[nq:1]I could care less. (Take that, Rushtown.) I apologize for offering a meta-response, but this "wrong time - wrong place" ... because your posting shows what a mess you get when you try to apply logic to this sort of thing.[/nq]
Is it really a "classic set phrase or idiom"? Seems
[nq:1]I could care less. (Take that, Rushtown.) I apologize for offering a meta-response, but this "wrong time - wrong place" ... because your posting shows what a mess you get when you try to apply logic to this sort of thing.[/nq]
Is it really a "classic set phrase or idiom"? Seems
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[nq:2]I could care less. (Take that, Rushtown.) I apologize for ... you try to apply logic to this sort of thing.[/nq]
[nq:1]Is it really a "classic set phrase or idiom"? Seems to me it's a weak, meaningless play on the idiom ... faintly amusing, but as all the unthinking writers of the age have jumped on the bandwagon it's become entirely tiresome.[/nq]
Whether or not it is tiresome it is
[nq:1]Is it really a "classic set phrase or idiom"? Seems to me it's a weak, meaningless play on the idiom ... faintly amusing, but as all the unthinking writers of the age have jumped on the bandwagon it's become entirely tiresome.[/nq]
Whether or not it is tiresome it is
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[nq:2]Is it really a "classic set phrase or idiom"? Seems ... age have jumped on the bandwagon it's become entirely tiresome.[/nq]
[nq:1]Whether or not it is tiresome it is not meaningless. There are four logical possibilities: 1. right place, right time; 2. right place, wrong time; 3. wrong place, right time; 4. wrong place, wrong time.[/nq]
Okay, it's not meaningless, but how often is it
[nq:1]Whether or not it is tiresome it is not meaningless. There are four logical possibilities: 1. right place, right time; 2. right place, wrong time; 3. wrong place, right time; 4. wrong place, wrong time.[/nq]
Okay, it's not meaningless, but how often is it
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[nq:1]years[/nq]
[nq:2]Whether or not it is tiresome it is not meaningless. ... 3. wrong place, right time; 4. wrong place, wrong time.[/nq]
[nq:1]Okay, it's not meaningless, but how often is it used to mean what it means?[/nq]
Sometimes it's used correctly.
Other times it's used metaphorically.
The remaining times it's just an annoyance.
I have no idea what the proportions
[nq:2]Whether or not it is tiresome it is not meaningless. ... 3. wrong place, right time; 4. wrong place, wrong time.[/nq]
[nq:1]Okay, it's not meaningless, but how often is it used to mean what it means?[/nq]
Sometimes it's used correctly.
Other times it's used metaphorically.
The remaining times it's just an annoyance.
I have no idea what the proportions
00
[nq:2]I often hear this phrase and I wonder if it's ... people are generally using the double wrong as an emphatic.[/nq]
[nq:1]I suspect that this common absurdity arises from unthinking analogy with "the right place at the right time". There is, ... information. Logically, it ought to be either "in the right place at the time" or "there at the wrong time".[/nq]I was trying to ponder the possi
[nq:1]I suspect that this common absurdity arises from unthinking analogy with "the right place at the right time". There is, ... information. Logically, it ought to be either "in the right place at the time" or "there at the wrong time".[/nq]I was trying to ponder the possi
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