As a boomer growing up watching Leave it to Beaver, I never quite understood why that phrase – giving someone “the business” – was always used in a negative connotation.

I get it now.

Randy Kessler, Bend

This article appears in Oct 9-15, 2008.

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America The Business

by Eric Flowers, The Source - Bend, Oregon
October 8, 2008

<h1>America The Business</h1> <p class="byline">by Eric Flowers, The Source - Bend, Oregon <br />October 8, 2008</p> <p>As a boomer growing up watching Leave it to Beaver, I never quite understood why that phrase &#045; giving someone &quot;the business&quot; &#045; was always used in a negative connotation.</p> <p>I get it now.</p> <p>Randy Kessler, Bend</p> <p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.bendsource.com/opinion/america-the-business-2131977/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.bendsource.com&quot;&gt;The Source - Bend, Oregon&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/www.bendsource.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/cropped-Untitled-design-4.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;</p> &lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://www.bendsource.com/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=14386&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://www.bendsource.com/opinion/america-the-business-2131977/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/bendsource.com/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;

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