Quotations and Literature Forum

I was reading a homeland defense article this morning, and came across a meta-quote:

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jul2003 ... 07144.html



I find the term "digit dust" to be geekily useful, and would love to find the first usage with an actual quote. Can anyone help me find an earlier citation; all the ones I have found have used this same kinda-quote from the same guy.

TIA,

Dave

It is indeed "geekily useful," which is a nice piece of phrase-making too, Dave. I'll assume that one is yours until you tell me otherwise. Why not give the credit for "digit dust" to this Butner guy? Let any prior claimant speak now or forever hold his piece.

_________________
Mr. Fussbudget

True wit is nature to advantage dressed,
What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed.

Mr. Fussbudget,

I haven't heard of anyone using "geekily useful" so you can assume it is mine. I never used it before, and may never hence, but you can go ahead and do so. Like "digit dust," I admire spur-of-the-moment coinages that convey a word picture.

My hope is that I could find the direct quote from Mr. Butner, if he coined the term. I have no reason to doubt that he did, but I would have hoped the writer would have quoted him directly, thus, "The price of a SnowGoose is digit dust if you look at it compared to the entire Defense Department budget." The way it is presented is good editing, but may lose some of the context. <shrug>

I wonder how little significance you need before you arrive at digit dust? But that is a further geeky meandering.

Dave