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Different Strokes for Different Folks?

Posted by ESC on August 08, 2000

In Reply to: Origin of Different Strokes for Different Folks? posted by Larry on August 07, 2000

: What did the word stroke originally apply to?

Beats me. I'll take the high road and suggest maybe oars in the water? Everyone paddles their respective canoes differently.

DIFFERENT STROKES FOR DIFFERENT FOLKS - "The approach to different people should be individualized. The proverb also means that different people have different tastes. Nobody knows exactly where the saying comes from. Wolfgang Mieder thinks it originated in the United States and traces 'different strokes' to Southern blacks in the 1950s." From Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings by Gregory Y. Titelman (Random House, New York, 1996).

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