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Fri 4 Sep, 2015 07:22 am
Panetta chuckled while describing the situation: “this came out of right field because I had obviously spent a lot of my life working on, like, budget issues and other policy areas. Although you know, both as chairman of the Budget Committee and as chief of staff and OMB director, I’d had a lot of relationships with agents and with what they did. So you know I was certainly familiar with it. But you know, when the president asked, I basically said, ‘What are you looking for here?’ And he said that the main purpose was trying to restore credibility to the CIA.
What does "come out of right field" mean here? I know "come out of left field" is an idiom which means unexpected, but what about using "right" here?
I think it is safe to assume that Panetta is not very bright, and that he just made up an expression which otherwise does not exist in English.
@engineer,
I've heard it, for decades now, as something coming
out of left field. I take it as a riff on baseball terminology. Maybe in the context of what he was talking about, right field was an appropriate twist.
@ossobuco,
Ive heard it used in "organization speak"
OUT OF LEFT FIELD-means its totally unexpected
OUT OF RIGHT FIELD-means that, while its expected, its a major leap in logic (It was an exponential leap in the RIGHT direction)
@farmerman,
Thanks, that's new re the right field to me but makes sense and I don't doubt you.
(Do I ever?)
I tend to avoid organizations, since they'd have me..
@PennyChan,
Penny that's really a good q
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=out+of+right+field
apparently it's a not-much-used expr
@PennyChan,
Penny, we need context: Just what was this "this" that came out of right field
@ossobuco,
Not an awful lot, Oss, if you'll Google the expr
@dalehileman,
My name is not Oss. I have told you that and you ignore.
Left field is used quite often this context, no matter your perception.
@ossobuco,
Quote:I have told you that and you ignore
Oops so I did; most abject apologies
Quote:Left field is used quite often this context, no matter your perception
Perhaps so, but it's the expr using "right" which sees so little usage
@dalehileman,
so ******* cute, you perfect personalized passive aggressive
@ossobuco,
Well, that was rude. I plan to never post to him again.
@PennyChan,
This is a guy, older, who claims confusion, but advises a lot of people. He also cuts off their names, even if they ask him repeatedly not to.
I'm older too, so I'm not impressed by his whining about being older.
This is actually aggressive of me to state.
Sorry to mess up your thread, Penny.
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