I was walking through the early morning, getting my exercise and listening to the most recent episode of Amicus, my first sampling the podcast of the great journalist Dahlia Lithwick, This episode (and it looks like a few episodes in a row before) was focused on the various ways in which Trump is trying to challenge election results (and while a month is not a long time ago, boy, the events of the last couple days sure does make it seem dated!) And in the course of this, I heard Lithwick say “I worry a lot about the Lucy football quality” of certain matters.

The Lucy football quality.

Not even just “pulling the football away”, the whole matter can be summed up as “the Lucy football quality” (somebody should grab that up quickly as a band name) and be understood.

And I’ve said it before and will doubtlessly say again, I dearly want a book that is focused completely and solely on the football gag as a political metaphor. Not just an article, not just a chapter, a whole book. I want its history, to know the first time it was invoked in a speech, in coverage, in a political cartoon. I want commentary by politicians, journalists, and cartoonists on why it works, or how its been abused. And I want as many examples as possible of its use, particularly in editorial cartoons (and there are hundreds to be had.)

And perhaps I’m the only one. But if I can just find another 11,780 people who will buy it, I bet we could get it made.

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