Deadline Comeuppance

The word “deadline” has its origins in the US Civil War. At the notorious Confederate prisoner-of-war camp in Andersonville, Georgia, commandant Henry Wirz declared a do-not-cross line around the prison. He ordered guards to shoot any Union soldier who crossed, touched, or even fell upon this “dead line.” By the 1920s, the term had been adopted by writers to refer to a time limit, although few editors enforced it with the sick panache of Wirz--who was tried and executed as a war criminal after the Confederate surrender. His brutal comeuppance puts deadlines, and pushy editors, right where they belong.

Inspired by Deadline.