Colloquial Usage
The connotation of "Whac-a-mole" — or "Whack-a-mole" — in colloquial usage is that of a repetitious and futile task: each time an adversary is "whacked", or kicked off a service, he only pops up again somewhere else.
- The term has been used in the computer and networking industry to describe the phenomenon of fending off recurring spammers, vandals or miscreants.
- The "Whac-a-mole" comparison has been used in the military to refer to ostensibly inferior opposing troops who keep re-appearing.
- This comparison was made by Andrew Krepinevich in reference to General William Westmoreland's obsession with killing Viet Cong as the mainstay of the American military's effort in the VietNam War.
- This use has also been common in the Iraq War in reference to the difficulty of defeating the Iraqi insurgency.
- Nuclear scientist Edwin Lyman compared the multiple simultaneous crises at Fukushima I to a game of "whack-a-mole"
Read more about this topic: Whac-A-Mole
Famous quotes related to colloquial usage:
“Mormon colonization south of this point in early times was characterized as ‘going over the Rim,’ and in colloquial usage the same phrase came to connote violent death.”
—State of Utah, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)