fiddle while Rome burns

Sitting there fiddling while Rome burns is not an option.

Do you want to be the one who fiddles while Rome burns?"

They want to play their fiddles while Rome burns, but we've got a chance to be successful in spite of them.

"It opens them up to criticism that the management is fiddling while Rome burns."

To fail to understand that we are moving into a new phase would be to fiddle while Rome burns.

To offer nothing more than criticisms and excuses is like fiddling while Rome burns.

Mr President, we run the risk today of fiddling while Rome burns.

I know that we have sent out a tender for an international management team, but we are fiddling while Rome burns.

"This is the case of Nero fiddling while Rome burns," he said.

That lame principals more or less hide out in their offices, fiddling while Rome burns.

It's the music of fiddling while Rome burns, which, in our own arrangements, we seem to be playing rather loudly and dissonantly ourselves.

This frivolity in the midst of such dire events is rather like fiddling while Rome burns, but one must keep up appearances.

Talk about fiddling while Rome burns!

Deborah Orr is of the "fiddle while Rome burns" persuasion.

Emissions are increasing, the climate is changing and people can now see for themselves that the world is fiddling while Rome burns."

"When I step back and look at the overall situation, I see an emperor fiddling while Rome burns."

The cliche "fiddling while Rome burns" expresses an unflattering image that must have occurred to many a musician and concertgoer in recent weeks.

Anniversary or not, the last thing Mr. Keene wants is to appear to be fiddling while Rome burns.

"Nero fiddles while Rome burns.

Is the playing of an ordinary concert, the writing of music, listening to CD's and attending concerts "fiddling while Rome burns"?

"Singing 'The Cup of Life' at George Bush's inauguration is like playing the fiddle while Rome burns," he wrote.

Fiddling while Rome burns evokes the torching of the city under Vitellius in 69 and Titus in 80.

"The Senate continues to fiddle while Rome burns," he said in a long speech on Monday afternoon on the Senate floor.

Two women, joined by two men, each saw away at a violin placed against a bare leg - a quartet of Neros fiddling while Rome burns.