Friday, October 10, 2008

What Is a Maverick Exactly?

From Wikipedia (hat tip Sullivan):
"Samuel Augustus Maverick (July 23, 1803–September 2, 1870) was a Texas lawyer, politician, land baron and signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. From his name comes the term "maverick", first cited in 1867, which means independent minded. Maverick was considered independent minded by his fellow ranchers because he refused to brand his cattle. In fact, Maverick's failure to brand his cattle had little to do with independent mindedness, but reflected his lack of interest in ranching... Maverick's stated reason for not branding his cattle was that he didn't want to inflict pain on them. Other ranchers however, suspected that his true motivation was that it allowed him to collect any unbranded cattle and claim them as his own."

From Letterman on 10/3/08
"I'm a maverick and I may not answer the questions tonight."-- NBC News anchor Brian Williams, on the Late Show with David Letterman.

No comments: