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The chickens have come home to roost

Posted by RRC on April 29, 2008 at 20:07:

In Reply to: The chickens have come home to roost posted by Dianna K. Goneau Inkster on April 29, 2008 at 15:27:

: "The chickens have come home to roost." Jeremiah Wright has resurrected that maxim in regard to the destruction of the twin towers of the World Trade Centre and the attack on the Pentagon and the probable attack on the White House by terrorists. "The chickens have come home to roost" was first used by Brother Malcolm (Malcolm X) after the assination of Pres. John F. Kennedy,
: I post this comment because I read on a blog that Rev. Wright had heard the same remark made by the American Ambassador to Iraq and no one can find that quotation.
: Was Rev. Wright being facetious when he ascribed his quotation to "an ambassador to Iraq". After all, Brother Malcolm converted to Islam shortly before his assasination and had just made his pilgrimage to Mecca?

The adage dates back to at least 1810 when the English poet Robert South wrote, "Curses are like young chickens; they always come home to roost.". Here's a quote from Google News Archive dated Oct. 29, 1849: "It is an old adage and a true one that "false-hoods and young chickens come home to roost".

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