There was the following sentence in June 29 issue of Time magazine titled “Roberts Rules: What the health care decision means for the country” dealing with Chief Justice of Supreme Court, John Roberts’ ruling to go forward with so-called "Obamacare."
“The fact that Roberts had to squirm like Houdini to reach middle
ground only enhanced the bravura of the feat. As the saying goes, it’s
one thing to dance like Fred Astaire, but Ginger Rogers did it
backwards in high heels. Philosophical purity is easy — the
blogosphere is lousy with it — while pragmatic solutions to difficult
problems are as rare these days as virgins on Jersey Shore."
The sentence is full of metaphoric (and nostalgic) proper nouns such as Houdini, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, and Jersey Shore, whose meanings are difficult for non-Americans to decipher at first glance.
I’m still not clear with what “It’s one thing to dance like Fred Astaire, but Ginger Rogers did it backwards in high heels,” exactly means in specific reference to the Chief Justice‘s rules.
I guess the author is likening Ginger Rogers’s backwards steps to Mr. Roberts’ unexpected, but critical turn in upholding the Obamacare at 4-4 split votes. If we eliminate all proper nouns from this sentence, how can we paraphrase this line?
The author says ‘As the saying goes.” Is “It’s one thing to dance like Fred Astaire, but Ginger Rogers did it backwards in high heels,” a popular expression?
I know Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers as a septuagenarian, but do today’s youth remember them and use this phrase in their conversation by saying ‘as the saying goes’?
Best Answer
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were famous dancers in, umm, the 1940s I think.
Fred Astaire was a very skillful dancer, performing many complex and difficult moves on the dance floor.
But humorist Bob Thaves once noted, "Sure he was great, but don't forget Ginger Rogers did everything he did, backwards ... and in high heels!" That is, when Ginger Rogers danced with Fred Astaire, she had to make all the same complex and difficult moves he did, but on top of that, as the woman she was dancing backwards while he was moving forwards, plus she was wearing high heels while he was wearing flat shoes, which surely made it more difficult still. So the point is, he was saying that Ginger Rogers's job was even more difficult than Fred Astaire's. (As I don't know anything about dancing, I have no idea if this is true. But that was the point of the quote.)
I don't think the original author was trying to say that Mr Roberts went backwards, but rather simply that the task he was trying to accomplish was very difficult -- like dancing backwards.
So without the allusions, the writer was trying to say something like, "This was a very difficult and tricky task. It's one thing to do X in general; it's even harder to do X under these circumstances."
I doubt the average young American would recognize this allusion. I'm 53 years old and I think it's fortuitous that I happened to recognize it. I suspect most Americans under 40 have no idea who Fred Astaire was, never mind recognizing the quote.
Houdini is better remembered, so yeah, I think most Americans would at least know that he was a renowned escape artist.
On the flip side, I'm only vaguely aware that Jersey Shore is some TV show popular today. I know nothing about it. But maybe it's well known to young Americans.
Now that you mention it, that was quite a set of cultural allusions to include in one brief quote. I wonder if that was deliberate or if it was basically a coincidence.