Date:  Sat, 16 Sep 1995 11:16:44 -0700

From:  Sylvia Swift <madonna[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]VIOLET.BERKELEY.EDU>

Subject: Re: Going postal



> Heard a new version of "going

> ballistic" yesterday: "going postal"



i first started hearing this phrase in california in about december 1994,

in connection with a public lecture on violence in the work place

sponsored by the american studies working group at berkeley. the speaker,

whose name escapes me (i could probably dig it out of our website, if

anyone's interested), reportedly used the phrase to mean something like,

"to take weapons into one's place of current or former employment and

commit a violent act." i missed the talk, but in the following months i

heard several speakers use the phrase in what i thought was this same

sense. i heard it recently on the radio, and that time it may have had

the broader (variation of ballastic) sense. i've also seen it in print

at least once, probably in _the bay guardian_ or _east bay express_, our

free weeklies.



sylvia swift

madonna[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]violet.berkeley.edu