Garson O’Toole put that rather more strongly on the basis of his own research as implying a poorly motivated or nonsensical quest or task.
I’ve found some examples in blogs that imply muddle or confusion attending such preparations. You noted in a later message that for you the expression referred to a familiar combination of anxiety and euphoria just before setting out on a trip. It’s possible that an unbowdlerised alliterative form blizzard of bullshit could already have been in use around that date it’s recorded only within the past decade, but that doesn’t mean a lot as it would have been considered too rude to print much before then. Both terms are euphemisms for horseshit or bullshit. Horseradish is on record from the 1920s meaning arrant nonsense or rubbish, a relative of horsefeathers. The News and Tribune (Jefferson City, Missouri), 3 Feb, 1974.
#Blizzard a quick word torrent#
Most examples from newspapers imply that a blizzard of horseradish is a torrent of unhelpful or irrelevant political verbiage:Īll the righteous indignation which drifts down Capitol Hill like a blizzard of horseradish is simply partisan politics. Between us we’ve found out a little more.
So I consulted Garson O’Toole, who runs the Quote Investigator site. A quick Google search finds few instances and no etymology.Ī I’d never come across this one either and felt rather at a loss. My colleague was amused, but said the expression was new to him. I’ve always thought it went back to my parents’ youth in the 1930s or 1940s. This was a familiar phrase in my family when we were off on a jaunt. Q From Kate Schubart: At the office yesterday I said to a younger staff member, you’re off in a blizzard of horseradish.
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