SHOTGUNNED......

Posted by Bruce Kahl on June 30, 2004

In Reply to: SHOTGUNNED...... posted by Henry on June 30, 2004

: :
: : : >> "shotgunned it" - Not sure. What's the sentence? Does it have to do with drinking a "shot" of alcohol?

: : Here're two more:
: : 1) I finally just made the paper provocative and *shotgunned it* in all directions

: : 2) The sender wanted message to be read
: : by everyone within reach, so he *shotgunned it* to the entire network.

: A shotgun cartridge contains lead shot, or pellets. When the gun is fired, the lead shot spread out and pepper a large area. It is much easier to hit a target, often a wildfowl, with a shot gun than a rifle.

Here in the US we have a "shotgun wedding".
This has come to mean a quickie wedding, without much fanfare or preparation.
A shotgun wedding is derived from the idea that the father of a pregnant unmarried girl would find the man who impregnated his daughter and put a shotgun to his head and force him to marry his daughter at gunpoint.

To "shotgun" a message across a network means you compose, say, an email message and then send it to everyone in the corporate email address book. The message then flys in all directions just as pices of shotgun buckshot fly all over the place in all directions, some hitting the target and some not.

• Riding shotgun. ESC 01/July/04