operation nose peg
n.— «Election 2005 has been dubbed “operation nose peg”: an electorate sniffy about rewarding Prime Minister Tony Blair’s support for the Iraq War, but not all that impressed with the alternative. Journalist Polly Toynbee coined the phrase, and it has spread like wildfire through the blogosphere.» —“All aboard for Operation Nose Peg” by Elisabeth Lopez The Age (Sydney, Australia) May 5, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
The proverb when in Rome, do as the Romans do suggests one should respect local customs and traditions, but also more generally that sometimes it’s better to go along with a group’s consensus than resist and make a fuss. But why in Rome and not in...
Diane, a bridge player from Wilmington, North Carolina, asks about sitting with the bathtub, a phrase her friend uses for a lopsided game where one pair keeps getting the good cards. The phrase appears in newspaper columns about bridge starting in...