English
Noun
en-noun|sg=who shot John
- idiom A long and involved explanation; or, a thing of which an explanation would be long and involved.
#*1979, Mr. Morris, quoted in Reauthorization of programs under the Justice System Improvement Act of 1979 : hearing before the Subcommittee on Crime of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, United States General Printing Office, page 17,
#*:I really do not think it is appropriate to come up here and present to this committee or to the Congress the "who shot John" processes by which the President makes decisions.
#*1987 May 13, Ms. Gradison<!-- Willis D. Gradison, Jr. ? -->, quoted in The Clayton Act Amendments of 1987 (railroad antitrust immunity) : hearing before the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Monopolies, and Business Rights of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, United States General Printing Office, page 88,
#*:Yes, sir. And I thought that might come up, so I brought the who-shot-John on it.
#*2004, Thomas Friedman, quoted in International Media Seminar on Peace in the Middle East Staff, Role of Civil Society in Promoting a Just And Lasting Peace in the Middle East: An Israeli-Palestinian Dialogue, United Nations Publications, ISBN 9211009766, page 67,
#*:That was the intervening event. I raise that not to start this whole who-shot-John-first, but to say that if we are going to talk about these events, we have to talk about them in the full and complete context.
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