Episode 273: Shoot for the Moon

This week Shauna and Dan shoot for the moon! Bonus: A man in a button factory, Debunking internet myths, and Steve Irwin saves the day

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Bunny Trails: A Word History Podcast
Episode 273: Shoot for the Moon
Record Date: March 29, 2025
Air Date: April 9, 2025

Intro

Shauna:
Welcome to Bunny Trails, a whimsical adventure of idioms and other turns of phrase.

I’m Shauna Harrison

Dan:
And I’m Dan Pugh

Each week we take an idiom or other turn of phrase and try to tell the story from its entry into the English language, to how it’s used today.

Opening Hook
Have you ever been outside looking up at the night sky, and felt like the moon appeared so close, but you know it’s actually far, far away? That’s the metaphorical concept behind today’s phrase. We want to do something that in some ways feels achievable, but in other ways feels so far from possible. But if you shoot for the moon and miss, you’ll still be among the stars. Floating in a vast openness of space. And unlikely to reach anything else before you die. But that’s a literal interpretation of what is clearly meant to be a metaphorical phrase, so we’ll mostly stick with figurative meanings as we discuss, shoot for the moon.

Meaning

According to the Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary, to shoot for the moon, or alternately to reach for the moon, means:

Quote
to try to do or get something that is very difficult to do or get
End Quote
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/reach%2Fshoot%20for%20the%20moon

Cambridge Online Dictionary has a similar, but slightly different definition for shoot for the moon:

Quote
to ask for the best or the most you could hope for
End Quote
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/shoot-for-the-moon

Both agree the phrase is about doing something that is unlikely to happen but worth it, though Merriam Webster’s feels a little more focused on the negative, while Cambridge is more focused on the positive. We see the phrase used both ways throughout history, so it seems both definitions are accurate.

The origins of this phrase are quite unclear. But we found numerous examples of it being used long before landing on the moon was an achievable task, so it’s clear the phrase was meant in a figurative or metaphorical way. The moon represents something unattainable. And there is probably a mix of the heavens, the stars, and other celestial bodies in the origins as well. Reaching or aiming for the moon were regular variants of the phrase, and reaching for the stars is a variant meaning the same thing but with a more hopeful outlook. We’re going to kick off looking at a variety of ways this looked.

1844
We will begin in 1844. But I am not claiming this is near the origin of the phrase, just the first time I found it in print. We’ll see some that mention this phrase and its variants as old proverbs, so it is likely they existed in an oral tradition before we started seeing them in the type of prints that have survived and been digitized.

This one is out of the Indiana State Sentinel, Indiana, USA, dated August 8, 1844. This is a political piece to showcase frustration with the Whigs for not being more effective in opposing the Democrats who were in power at the time and, in the mind of the author, ruining the state. I’ll give a quick warning: the language is angry and uses allusions to physical violence as a metaphor. It also uses some old terms, like “old coon”, which according to the Oxford English Dictionary means “a shrewd person, esp a politician”.
https://www.oed.com/dictionary/old-coon_n
It is also an allusion to an old hunting dog. Also when they reference Clay, is it speaking of the ground substance, while alluding to Henry Clay, the former US Secretary of State under John Quincy Adams, frequent Presidential Candidate, and  a founder of the Whig Party.

The piece is written in verse, and I’ll just read the first part of it:

Quote
When the old Coon took sick, and was about to expire,
The Whigs got a new rifle gun.
With which they keep up an incessant fire,
but no execution is done.

They’ve been popping and squibbing from that time to this,
They boast of their gun and their skill,
But with balls made of Clay forever they’ll miss,
And fail the poor loco’s to kill.

The smoke and the noise create no alarm,
They’ll not hit a Democrat soon,
With such ammunition they can’t do them harm,
They might as well shoot at the moon.
End Quote
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015677/1844-08-08/ed-1/seq-1/#date1=1756&index=0&date2=1963&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&words=moon+shoot&proxdistance=5&sort=date&rows=20&ortext=&proxtext=&phrasetext=Shoot+for+the+moon&andtext=&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1

It feels like every time we read something political from the United State’s history we see something eerily similar happening in present day politics, too. It’s almost as if the biggest issue in the United States is our inability to learn from our past.

1870
This is from the Weekly Clarion out of Mississippi, USA and dated November 24, 1870. This is a small part of a larger article detailing Masonic foreign correspondence. In the piece I’m going to read, “Grand Master” Gaithright of Mississippi is reviewing a report from “Brother Murphy” for the year 1870.

Quote
It is a discriminating and able paper - a little impractical occasionally - its author seeming to feel that a man is justified in shooting at the moon, although he may never hope to reach it, rather than to be content with lower aims, even where there are reasonable hopes of success…
End Quote
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83016926/1870-11-24/ed-1/seq-4/#date1=1756&index=12&date2=1963&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&words=moon+shooting&proxdistance=5&sort=date&rows=20&ortext=&proxtext=&phrasetext=Shoot+for+the+moon&andtext=&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1

1885
This is in The Gawler Bunyip out of South Australia, AU, dated July 17, 1885. It is from a section called “Mr. Rees’s Lecture”, who is Mr. Rowland Rees, M.P., which standard for Member of Parliament. The lecture appears to have been well received, but that paper did have this to say:

Quote
Mr. Rees had placed his standard high, but there was an old proverb, “Aim at the moon, and you would be sure to hit the steeple.”
End Quote
https://newspaperarchive.com/gawler-bunyip-jul-17-1885-p-3/


1915
This is from The Law Weekly, volume 11, dated March of 1915. This is based in India, though at the time it was under British occupation. Our phrase is in a piece called Intermediate Chatter, Changing over to the Higher Branch. It is speaking to lawyers and law students.

Quote
Think of the able, brilliant men you will have to compete with, you will have heard of the fabulous incomes that barristers who “have struck oil” have made … but what is the average income of those who do fairly well and are accounted successful? That is what you should think of. It is not what the lucky talented few make …  but what the ordinary plodding and fairly-brained man can earn. We are all wise to “shoot for the moon” but what chance have most of us of hitting it?
End Quote
https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Law_Weekly/gJ9DAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22Shoot+for+the+moon%22&pg=PA37&printsec=frontcover

Next up are two movies, less than 15 years apart.

1917
Reaching for the Moon is a 1917 movie of the silent film era, with Douglas Fairbanks in the title role. Here is the synopsis:

Quote
Despite his humble existence as a clerk in a button factory, Alexis Caesar Napoleon Brown (Douglas Fairbanks) can't shake the feeling that he might be royalty. Then one day he is awakened by a visitor: the prime minister of Vulgaria (Eugene Ormonde), the country that his late mother emigrated from, who informs Alexis that he is their next king. But royal life isn't all it's cracked up to be, thanks in part to assassination attempts by a would-be usurper named Black Boris (Frank Campeau).
End Quote
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&sca_esv=e1bc306dcb0911c4&sxsrf=AHTn8zr0QnZI7xcZq9WhOboNzl8xJADc3A:1743102638664&q=Reaching+for+the+Moon+(1917)&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjxpdas-6qMAxWbGtAFHbMYM6sQ1QJ6BAhhEAE&biw=1707&bih=821&dpr=1.5

The full movie is actually public domain now and we’ll link to it in our show notes, available at our website, bunnytrailspod.com
Full movie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vreAs6Z_QMo&t=4s

1930
1930 saw the release of the film Reaching for the Moon directed by Edmund Goulding, in which a wall street banker chases a flirtatious girl while being coached by his valet. They all end up on a ocean liner cruise where love potions are mixed into the cocktails and hilarity ensues. Probably. The odd thing is, the lead character in this one is played by, none other than, Douglas Fairbanks. Fairbanks was in many adventure movies, including playing the original Zorro in 1920, taking on Robin Hood in 1922, and D’Artagnan in the 1921 The Three Musketeers. We’ll look more at Douglas Fairbanks in our behind the scene video, airing on Fridays on our Patreon, patreon.com/bunnytrailspod

For the 1930 Reaching for the Moon, here is a note on the film from the Museum of Modern Art:

Quote
…Hollywood had flooded the market with musicals, and in a typical snapback, the studios now decided nobody wanted them. Virtually all of Irving Berlin’s songs were cut from Reaching for the Moon, save the one given to a newcomer named Bing Crosby. The song-stripped Reaching for the Moon remains an appealing proto-screwball set on an eye-popping Art Deco ocean liner.
End Quote
https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/7563
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfhYshypw_Y

1957 - 1969
The phrase took a huge spike in usage in the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s with the Soviet launch of Sputnik in 1957 and President Kennedy announcing in 1961 the national goal of the United States to put a man on the moon, and bring him safely back to earth, by the end of the decade. Suddenly, this old saying meaning something nearly impossible was in the public’s consciousness as something that might actually get done in their lifetime.
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=shoot+for+the+moon%2C+even+if+you+miss%2C+be+among+the+stars%2C+land+among+the+stars&year_start=1800&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=3

https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/displayTrajectory.action?id=1957-001B

https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/historic-speeches/address-to-joint-session-of-congress-may-25-1961

Here are some quick headlines:

1957
Out of The Salina Journal, Kansas, USA, June 10, 1958
Quote
Air Force to Shoot for the Moon in August to Fire Three “Lunar Probes”
End Quote
https://newspaperarchive.com/salina-journal-jun-10-1958-p-1/

1962
Or the Daily News-Record out of Virginia, USA dated January 19, 1962
Quote
US to ‘Shoot For The Moon’
The United States plans literally and figuratively to “shoot for the moon” next week in what could be its proudest period of the young space age
End Quote
https://newspaperarchive.com/harrisonburg-daily-news-record-jan-18-1962-p-21/

1969
Or the culmination of the monumental effort being reduced to this used car sales ad from the Belville Motor Car, Inc. It’s in the Athens Messenger, Ohio, USA, from July 18, 1969, just two days after the historic moon shot and before the NASA astronauts have even returned to Earth.

Quote
We’ve shot the moon! Belville “autonauts” are back from their own trip to the moon! And they’ve brought back a new lunar price schedule that really is out of this world when it comes to saving your money! Come in today and save on these moon-shot deals!
End Quote
https://newspaperarchive.com/athens-messenger-jul-18-1969-p-18/

It doesn’t get much more American than that.

With that, it’s time to move to our more modern uses but first we need to say thank you to our sponsors.

A Quick Thank You
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Modern Uses

1975 Song
We’ll kick off our modern uses with a 1975 song called Reach for the Moon by singer and songwriter Angelo Bond. It was released as a single and was part of the album, Bondage. It starts off with the chorus:

Quote
Reach for the moon
You may land among the stars
But you gonna make it
You gonna make it
I know that you are
End Quote
https://youtu.be/p_F4rWxMetI?si=dikQoOdJTJcxvVdk&t=901

1982 Movie
Shoot the Moon is a 1982 movie directed by Alan Parker. It stars Albert Finney and Diane Keaton. Here is the synopsis from the trailer description:

Quote
A fifteen year marriage dissolves, leaving both the husband and wife, and their four children, devastated. He's preoccupied with a career and a mistress, she with a career and caring for four young children. While they attempt to go their separate ways, jealousy and bitterness reconnect them.
End Quote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IUBN1BQpuU

This movie was widely seen as one of the first films about American divorce from a real and honest perspective.

1986 Quote
Next up is a common myth the internet continues to tell. This is about the popular saying, “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss it, you’ll land among the stars.” This saying is often attributed to Norman Vincent Peale. However, he didn’t lay claim to it. In fact, he attributed it to another person. This is an excerpt from Peale’s 1986 book Why Some Positive Thinkers Get Powerful Results. Chapter 5, titled You can Make Things Go Better, starts off with this sentence:

Quote
Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss it, you’ll land among the stars.” So said Les Brown, a former member of a state legislature but now a popular youth motivational speaker.
End Quote
https://archive.org/details/whysomepositivet00peal_0/page/86/mode/2up?q=%22land+among+the+stars%22

I’ve seen internet articles frequently attributing this to Peale, and some even attribute Peale as the creator of Shoot for the Moon as a whole. But we know the concept was around even before Peale was born, and Peale himself credits Les Brown with the extended phrase. And more importantly, we just talked about how the phrase was used in the 1975 song Reach for the Moon by Angelo Bond with his opening lyrics of the chorus “Reach for the moon, you may land among the stars”.

I have no doubt that Brown’s phrase and Peale’s citations of it helped propel the concept of “Shoot for the Moon” to new heights, so to speak. Google’s Ngram shows an uptick for the phrase in the mid 1980s with a steady rise since the quote started hitting high school yearbooks in the 1990s.
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=shoot+for+the+moon%2C+even+if+you+miss%2C+be+among+the+stars%2C+land+among+the+stars&year_start=1800&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=3

1997 Artwork
Shoot for the Moon is a 1997 artwork by Parks Reece. It is a lithograph, and features a fish jumping out of the water, seemingly trying to grab the moon in its mouth.
https://www.parksreece.com/artwork-of-parks-reece/p/shoot-for-the-moon



2002 Song
Shoot the Moon is a beautiful song by Norah Jones off her 2002 album, Come Away With Me. Which is an amazing album. I bought it on CD when it came out and still love the music. Here is the first verse:

Quote
The summer days are gone too soon
You shoot the moon and miss completely
And now you're left to face the gloom
The empty room that once smelled sweetly
End Quote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlJX_9FMbp8

2019 Book
Reaching for the Moon: The Autobiography of NASA Mathematician Katherine Johnson. It is an autobiography, the biography part means it is a story of a person’s life or part of their life, and the auto part of it means it is written by the person in question. So this, as an autobiography of Katherine Johnson, was written by Katherine Johnson. It was released in 2019. The title, Reaching for the Moon, plays off the actual goal of trying to land someone on the moon, and the figurative usage of trying to do something incredibly difficult. Here’s the synopsis from the publisher.

Quote
The inspiring autobiography of NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, who helped launch Apollo 11.

As a young girl, Katherine Johnson showed an exceptional aptitude for math. In school she quickly skipped ahead several grades and was soon studying complex equations with the support of a professor who saw great promise in her. But ability and opportunity did not always go hand in hand. As an African American and a girl growing up in an era of brutal racism and sexism, Katherine faced daily challenges. Still, she lived her life with her father’s words in mind: “You are no better than anyone else, and nobody else is better than you.”

In the early 1950s, Katherine was thrilled to join the organization that would become NASA. She worked on many of NASA’s biggest projects including the Apollo 11 mission that landed the first men on the moon.

Katherine Johnson’s story was made famous in the bestselling book and Oscar-nominated film Hidden Figures. Now in Reaching for the Moon she tells her own story for the first time, in a lively autobiography that will inspire young readers everywhere.
End Quote
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Reaching_for_the_Moon/EMGADwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0

2024 Article
Shooting the Moon is a strategy in some card games, like Hearts, where you attempt to pick up all of the tricks. Here’s brief overview from a 2024 article by Neal Taparia on hearts.co:

Quote
‘Shooting the moon’ in Hearts is a high-risk, high-reward strategy. The goal is to collect all thirteen Hearts and the Queen of Spades. The player who manages to shoot the moon will get zero points and all others take twenty-six. However, if a player fails to collect all the Hearts and the Queen of Spades, they will be forced to take all the points in their hand.

When playing the classic card game Hearts, shooting the moon can completely alter the game's dynamic. Putting all other players far ahead in points awards a massive advantage to the person who shot the moon. 

End Quote
https://hearts.co/shooting-the-moon-in-hearts

There are other card games where this could happen, too, like pinochle and bridge.
http://championships.worldbridge.org/16th-world-bridge-series/shooting-the-moon

Wrap Up
I was quite the skeptic growing up, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve really started to appreciate phrases that have a positive spin. Shoot for the moon, reach for the stars, and other phrases like it are ways that we can identify our desire to try new things, even when they are difficult. And I think that is what helps us grow as humans, which is a requirement to keep from feeling stuck in life.

Dan:
That’s about all we have for today. If you have any thoughts on the show, or pop culture references we should have included,
reach out to us on Patreon, patreon.com/bunnytrailspod or comment on our website bunnytrailspod.com

Shauna:
It’s poll time!

Recently we asked our Patrons, Hardcover or Paperback?

Hardcover wins the day, with digital options coming in second.

Heather notes:
Quote
I'm not picky about format types, a book is a book however its packaged. These days I mostly read ebooks or library books because of price and space. I will read audiobooks, but usually only nonfiction- fiction narration to me is a mixed bag.
End Quote

Cheryl says:
Quote
I love hardbacks but I'm out of shelf space so I'm mostly reading ebooks and audiobooks these days.
End Quote

And Mary adds:
Quote
I absolutely love hardback books. The feel, the art inside and on the cover appeals to my love of visual art. When I am traveling, I always go to the airport bookstore and buy a paperback as a treat to myself. The truth, I get most of my literature in audiobooks in the car as I go from appointment to appointment.
End Quote

Dan:
We also asked our Patrons about their most prized book:

Pat said:

Quote
Most prized:  I have a hard cover set of LOTR from 1973 (perhaps earlier in the 70's)! There are too many to mention; I love my books.  However, a close second is The Dark Tower Series in soft cover (the boxed set).  And, third, the Chronicles of Narnia ( the boxed set).
End Quote

Shauna:
Emily added:
Quote
I have a hardcover book from my favorite author (Maeve Binchy) that I randomly found in a discount bin in a small, local shop. It turned out to be the first of a series of related novels (character overlaps) and one of my favorites of her writings.
End Quote

Jan said:
Quote
It’s a hardcover 1949 copy of the History and Social Influence of the Potato. Too many old cookbooks to mention come in at a close second.
End Quote


As a reminder, our silly polls mean absolutely nothing and are not scientifically valid. And patrons of all levels, including our free tiers, can take part. Head over to patreon.com/bunnytrailspod to take this week’s poll!

Outro

Shauna:
Thanks for joining us. We’ll talk to you again next week. Until then remember,

Together:
Words belong to their users.