Talk:golden ticket

Did this saying come from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Or did Willy Wonka just popularise it?--Keene 18:49, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

RFV discussion: January–February 2021
Sense 2: "A philosophy that a quick fix can be achieved. He believes in the golden ticket." I find it hard to see a ticket as being a philosophy: if you say "he believes in the quick fix", it doesn't mean a fix is a philosophy, but that his philosophy is to use the quick fix. There are no Google Books hits for "believes in the golden ticket". Needs to be distinct from sense 1. Equinox ◑ 11:10, 25 January 2021 (UTC)
 * Not found as such, but I think sense 1 is too narrow in that that which is afforded by a “golden ticket” need not be something lucrative. The figurative sense seems to be essentially the same as that of . A use in this figurative sense from 1911: ‘Dr. Gregory pointed out the importance attached to the grade with which a student passes this examination at the end of his course. “The man with a Number 1 mark has a golden ticket for life,” the speaker said.’ In a 1917 use, it represent an unattainable pardon for the “interviewer”, being a character placed in Dante’s Inferno. Most modern uses will be (possibly indirect) references to ', as when pursuing a career in medicine is thought to be “a golden ticket''' to the proud parents factory”. --Lambiam 15:01, 27 January 2021 (UTC)


 * So it also seems we should change the etymology, which currently indicates that Chocolate Factory is the source (much later than 1911). Equinox ◑ 15:12, 27 January 2021 (UTC)

RFV-failed Kiwima (talk) 22:17, 25 February 2021 (UTC)