Another Kennedy Reaches for the Brass Ring [title] The latest entry in the political Irish sweepstakes is Teddy Kennedy, the President's 30-year-old brother.

I'm holdin' on / I can't fall back / Now that big brass ring / Is a shade of black

As a perversion of freedom it was, like any perversion, erotic; as alienation it carried the frisson of having just missed the brass ring, a sensation that always brought one back for more.

The one thing considered the brass ring in selling insurance was making a sale on a cold canvass. Cold canvassing was the most dreaded exercise for most insurance salesmen.

Brass ring

Meaning

Noun