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Reader question: Please explain "moon shot" in this sentence: Elizabeth Warren pitches her environmental agenda as a jobs-and-stimulus package — a 21st-century version of Eisenhower’s interstate highway program or JFK’s moon shot. My comments: In other words, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts has quite an ambitious plan in regards to the environment. You see, Eisenhower, Dwight Eisenhower that is, who as 34th president of the United States (1953–61) built roads linking American states up; JFK, or John F. Kennedy as 35th president (1961–63), presided over the space program that sent the first human onto the moon. Those were monumental pieces of work. So, for Warren to be compared to that duo is quite an honor, meaning her plan to ease global warming is equally ambitious. Most politicians want to avoid climate change projects because they are, among other things, costly. Warren's plan, however, will create jobs and provide fresh stimulus to the economy. Hence and therefore, her plan is likened to a moon shot. Yes, moon shot means literally a shot at the moon, sending a spacecraft to the moon, for instance. Moon shot, however, came into the American lexicon before the moon landing. It was originally named after the US baseball player Wallace Moon (born 1930), who was renowned for his ability to hit the ball high up over the left-field boundary fence in the Los Angeles Coliseum. His arching shots reached so high in the sky that fans thought they were going straight to the moon. | 
