Wikipedia talk:Articles for deletion/Foot-in-the-door technique

Alternative Interpretations
I would like to see some consideration of the meaning related to door-to-door salesmen. He (almost always male in the years that they were fairly common) would ring a doorbell or knock on a door. The housewife (another era-related phemomenon) would open the door and the salesman would unobtrusively slip his foot over the threshold so that when the woman went to close the door in his face it wouldn't close completely and would be sufficiently ajar for him to continue his sales pitch in the hope of overcoming her initial sales resistance. I recall the 1950's when "Fuller Brush Man" was a stock phrase and when Eureka vacuum cleaners and the Encyclopedia Britannica (both quality products still sold today) were also sold door-to-door.

I believe that applying the phrase "I got my foot in the door" to, for instance, obtaining an initial job interview, would derive more from this interpretation than the one given. In fact, the meaning presently posted strikes me as more appropriate to "Letting the Camel's Nose Into the Tent" or "Give Them an Inch and They'll Take a Mile." Dick Kimball (talk) 16:20, 25 March 2008 (UTC)