goat-rope

n. a messy or disorganized situation. Also goat roping, goat rodeo. Subjects: English

2 Comments | Cites | Permalink | Tell a Friend

Citations: [1951 Albert E. Barrantine @ Korea Bridgeport Sunday Post (Conn.) (July 1) “Bridgeport Office Lauds Buddy Who ‘Fires’ Artillery By Radio” p. C12: I’ve been to two world fairs, goat roping in Idaho and cut off at Unsan, but I’ve never seen anything like this.] 1987 Randy Galloway Dallas Morning News (Jan. 25) “Giants To Beat Broncos: Simms Is Pressure-Proof” p. 4B: Any team good enough to get this far comes in fully aware that for several morning hours every day you will have to endure a media goat rope. 1990 [dlbres10@pc.usl.edu (Fraering Philip)] Usenet: sci.space (Apr. 18) “Re: Pegasus launch from Valkyrie”: In fact, it sounds a lot like what is called in the oilfield a “goat-roping exercise.” 1992 [spray@convex.com (Rob Spray)] Usenet: alt.music.alternative (Aug. 4) “Dallas Indie Music Festival (Re: The Buck Pets)”: In a moment of temporary insanity, I volunteered to be some kind of stage manager for this goat-rope! Can you imagine getting fifteen bands on and off a stage—most of them don’t even have roadie. 1993 [wdh@grouper.mkt.csd.harris.com (W. David Higgins)] Usenet: alt.president.clinton (May 18) “Re: Laser Focus on Economy”: It remains to be seen if this will be a real investigation, or just a C.Y.A. goat-rope. 2004 Mark Davis Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Ga.) (Sept. 3) “Developer files suit against Snellville”: The article derided the proposed annexation and rezoning as a “goat roping.” 2004 John Battelle Searchblog (Dec. 22) “A Look Ahead”: We will have a goat rodeo of sorts in the blogging/micropublishing/RSS world as commercial interests push into what many consider a “pure medium.”

Posted 6 Sep 04 | Permalink | Tell a Friend

Reader comments:

This adequately describes a situation I had the other day. I am an air traffic controller, and President Bush flew into Tampa recently creating havoc in the airspace for which I am responsible. It was a true goat rope.

by Aaron Matthews 20 Feb 06, 0120 GMT

US military (specifically Air Force military transport) jargon ca. 1970s-1980s, referring to an operation or undertaking involving an unnecessarily large number of people, most of them contributing nothing or actually impeding progress. Typically used to refer to flightline operations where military brass felt it necessary to make their presence felt and impede the normal duties/operations of the aircrew, offering “advice” or “assistance” that was neither requested nor needed. Example:

“We got gear up and flaps up out of Norton (Air Force Base) on time, no sweat, but Travis was a major goat-rope and a half. We had three times as many Base Ops types and ground-pounders in the cargo compartment as crewmembers, and the only reason they finally got the hell out of the way is that they didn’t want to buy a crew delay.”

by speedstan 05 May 08, 0430 GMT