Benjamin Dreyer: I want to know what was going on in the early 2000s when most people were apparently saying "when worst comes to worst." WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE.

I want to know what was going on in the early 2000s when most people were apparently saying "when worst comes to worst." WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE.

I can't take responsibility for anything preceding 1990. I wasn't a copy editor yet.

But you can take credit for not changing the good stuff since then.

This is apparently my "doggy dog world," but thankfully not with an expression I actually ever have use for.

What wait what no.

I keep waiting for "when wurst comes to wurst" but maybe I just want a hot dog.

(Mostly because my grill isn't working and this is an Independence Day Weekend tragedy.)

Looks like we were traditionalists temporarily rallying against a movement to put over an unconventional usage

Feel like worse would GO to worst whereas worst arrives at its natural destination, itself

the worst of the worst

There's an ancient gag in one of those Henny-and-Otto-type sketches about "the best of the wurst."

I don't even know which of those is correct. Seems I'm right

🤦‍♀️

It wasn’t me!

It was absolutely me. But that by far not the worst thing that I did in the 90’s.

Ah, that’s when the worst court let the worst man win.

It should have brought beer.

Early 2000s was when the chickens came home to worst.

Me. It me. I always wondered why it was that way, though admittedly not very hard

sausage-eating germans

How do you make these graphs?

Can you run "unprecedented"?

What evidence I can find does not support the assertion that the double-worst version is more popular in the UK.

Agree FWIW: only ever heard ‘if it comes to the worst…’

Interesting! I would read the hell out of a deep dive on the phrase.

Where is the line for “pronounced both ambiguously because subconsciously I wasn’t sure what the ogre was and never examined it too closely”?

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