APAD: Rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic

Meaning:

   To occupy yourself with some trivial activity while ignoring something much

   more important.

 

Background:

   This is sometimes shortened to just `rearranging the deckchairs'. clearly

   refers to the sinking of the great ship in 1912.

 

   There's no evidence to suggest that anyone did waste their time in

   rearranging the Titanic's deckchairs while it was sinking - the expression is

   purely metaphorical. The ship's band however, who all eventually drowned, did

   continue to play on in an effort to calm the passengers.

 

   Some deckchairs were thrown overboard to act as floatation aids for

   passengers already in the sea. While a noble gesture this had little effect

   as the icy water was quickly fatal.

 

   As to the expression `rearranging the deckchairs...' it isn't contemporary

   with the ship's sinking. The earliest example that I can find of it in print

   is from the Canadian newspaper The Times Colonist, December 1972:

 

     "Best quip of the year was the remark about Trudeau's cabinet shuffle -

     `like rearranging the deck-chairs on the Titanic'."

 

   ...

 

   It's a rather sad irony that the deckchairs, useless at the time, are now

   highly prized and, a hundred years after the tragedy, a single chair

   recovered from the sea was sold for £100,000.

 

- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]

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Three brothers grew up under the same roof, never saw eye to eye on anything,

and went on to pursue diverse careers. None felt fulfilled toward midlife and a

spring day in 1912 found them all aboard the hitherto largest ocean liner heading

to a new promised land. On that fateful night after the ship banked into an

iceberg, amid fear and trembling, the youngest knelt down to pray, not that God

would deliver him from death but from paralyzing fear. The second held his post

at the grand piano in the ship's band, ferociously belting out Beethoven No. 5:

da da da dum. The oldest came last on deck, took a deep breath, and calmly

started to rearrange the chairs as he knew these were going to be valuable.