Is Friday realistic? What’s a realistic timeline? — The deadline is open to discussion before it is set.
Heads-up: this is going to slip. — A warning that the date will be missed, given before it is missed.
Can I get an extension? — A request for more time.
By end of day. By close of business Friday. — The deadline, stated to the hour.
Down to the wire. At the eleventh hour. Pull an all-nighter. — The work is finished at the last moment.
A line attributed to the Alabama football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant appears on quotation sites: “If anything goes bad, I did it. If anything goes semi-good, we did it. If anything goes really good, then you did it. That’s all it takes to get people to win football games for you.”
Quotation sites give no source or date for it.
The West Point honor code reads: “A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do.” The last clause was added formally only in 1970.
In 1976 more than 800 cadets took a take-home engineering exam, and a cheating scandal followed. A commission led by Frank Borman found that “many individuals are reluctant to place duty to community over loyalty to friends.” In a 1974 survey, 73 percent of cadets had said they would not report a good friend.
In Good to Great (2001) Jim Collins describes the best leaders he studied with an image. When things go well, they look out the window to credit others. When things go badly, they look in the mirror to take responsibility.
In 2016 it became public that Wells Fargo employees had opened about 1.5 million unauthorized bank accounts and 565,000 credit cards in customers’ names. The bank paid a $185 million settlement and fired 5,300 employees.
On September 20 Senator Elizabeth Warren confronted CEO John Stumpf at a Senate hearing. “Instead, your definition of ‘accountable’ is to push the blame to your low-level employees.” She called it “gutless leadership.”
Thrown under the bus. Merriam-Webster defines it as “to criticize, blame, or punish (someone in a vulnerable position) especially in order to avoid blame or gain an advantage.” It became enormously popular during the 2008 presidential campaign, when the linguist Geoff Nunberg, on NPR, counted it in more than 400 campaign stories in six months.
Got your six. Service members say it to tell each other that their rear is covered. Picture an analog clock with you at the center, facing 12. Six is directly behind you.
In Super Bowl XLIX the Seattle Seahawks trailed New England 28-24 with 26 seconds left, at the New England 1-yard line. Seattle chose to pass. Malcolm Butler intercepted, and the game was effectively over.
The head coach, Pete Carroll, said afterward: “I told those guys, ‘That’s my fault, totally.'” His offensive coordinator, Darrell Bevell, said of the receiver: “He could have done a better job of staying strong on the ball.”
In April 1961 the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba failed. On April 21 John F. Kennedy told reporters: “There’s an old saying that victory has 100 fathers and defeat is an orphan.” He added that he was the responsible officer of the government.
Gallup then found his approval at 83%, up from 78% before the invasion. The saying was not his. A version appears in the 1942 diary of the Italian diplomat Count Galeazzo Ciano, who called it something that happens “as always.”
On June 5, 1944, the day before D-Day, General Dwight Eisenhower wrote a note to release if the landings failed. “My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. … If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone.”
He crossed out “This particular operation” and wrote “My decision to attack” in its place. He misdated the note July 5. It is kept at the Eisenhower Library in Abilene, Kansas.
In November 1986 Ronald Reagan said he had not traded arms for hostages. His approval fell from 67% to 46%, the largest single drop for any president. On March 4, 1987, he spoke from the Oval Office: “My heart and my best intentions still tell me that’s true; but the facts and the evidence tell me it is not.”
“There are reasons why it happened, but no excuses. It was a mistake. I take full responsibility for my own actions and for those of my Administration.” He named a new national security adviser, a new chief of staff and a nominee for CIA director. His approval recovered.