Date:    Tue, 17 Feb 1998 16:09:27 -0500
<br>From:    "Bernard W. Kane"  bkane[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]TIGGER.JVNC.NET 
<br>Subject: bean bag
<br>
<br>At 03:22 PM 2/16/98 -0500, Beverley Flanigan wrote:
<br> snip 
<br>     On "Face the Nation" yesterday, somebody described the grilling
<br>     procedure (pun intended) of grand juries as "It ain't beanbagging."
<br>     Source and connotation, anyone?
<br>
<br>I have related usage:
<br>
<br>"Character may be fate but, as Al Lowenstein tried to teach him [Bob
<br>Kerrey] at the beginning, politics ain't beanbag."
<br>THE NEW REPUBLIC
<br>January 20, 1992
<br>
<br>"Robert S. Strauss, the American Ambassador to Russia...told Congress that
<br>the absence of any serious debate on the question of aid to Russia was
<br>'just shocking.' 'This ain't beanbag we're playing,' he said. "These are
<br>big-time issues."
<br>THE NEW YORK TIMES
<br>March 15, 1992
<br>
<br>"Admittedly, and in the irritating phrase of the moment, $75,000 'ain't
<br>beanbag.' But nor is it very much money in return for committing the
<br>Democratic Party to a harder line on Cuba."
<br>THE NATION.
<br>June 8, 1992
<br>
<br>"Proposition 174 is shaping up as the focus of a multimillion dollar
<br>battle...Howard Ahmanson, who calls himself a 'fundamentalist Episcopalian'
<br>and has been a deep pocket for the Christian right, gave $75,000. They are
<br>not just playing beanbag."
<br>THE NATION.
<br>October 4, 1993
<br>
<br>(subhead in big boldface type:)"but it's not beanbag"
<br>"One source close to [investigator] Fiske says, 'It [the Steiner diary]'s
<br>not the Nixon tapes, but it ain't beanbag.'"
<br>TIME
<br>April 4, 1994
<br>
<br>"And what of those 'powerful forces' who resent his winning the presidency?
<br>Is politics a contact sport, or bean bag? Of course 'forces' prowl and
<br>scheme along Pennsylvania Avenue."
<br>TIME
<br>May 23, 1994
<br>
<br>In sum: DEF = something nugatory, insignificant BUT most often in negative:
<br>not bean bag = NOT to be disregarded
<br>not play bean bag = to be extremely serious; playing for money; playing for
<br>all the marbles
<br>NOTE frequently in political context
<br>