Consider the phrase "The sun never sets on the British Empire".
If you type that phrase into google, among the results you'll the following two hits: one that proposes that America step down as a superpower, and the other which celebrates and encourages even greater "superpower" efforts in the world.
Notice how neither of them are about Britain? They've just appropriated the phrase from Christopher North's editorial in 1829 and applied it to another nation. It's also interesting to see how one phrase can become so loaded with meaning that it can not only be transposed entirely out of context, but can also be used within two diametrically opposed pieces.
The flexibility within language to bend and be shaped by such different wills and to such different purposes is fascinating - reminds me why I'm in this business.
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