TheBanyanTree: It seemed like a good idea at the time

[Cecil]

At 1:10 PM +1100 2/13/05, Peter Macinnis wrote:
>The phrase "it seemed like a good idea at the time" seems to have no
>obvious source, but it is widely known.

I first heard the expression in the movie, The Magnificent Seven. 
Steve McQueen and the other heroes were trying to rid a little 
Mexican town of an outlaw gang and were captured by them. They talked 
the leader into letting them go, but they came back and were captured 
again. The leader asked McQueen why they came back.

"Well," said Steve, "it's like a guy I knew in my home town who took 
off all his clothes and jumped into a cactus patch. When someone 
asked him why he did it, he replied that it seemed like a good idea 
at the time."

I don't know if that was already a popular expression.

Cecil