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Jul 24, 2017 at 2:10 comment added kayleeFrye_onDeck The short story, "As the Crow Flies: And how Mary Forgot the Application" was published in 1853. This answer would at best be a cutesy and convenient bolt-on phrase, but not one of any dogmatic or etymological significance. It would however make sense. Source: tinyurl.com/ya9myvmw
Jul 20, 2017 at 20:32 comment added Scimonster I made this up also as i clicked on the link. It may not be common, but it's certainly easy to understand. +1
Jul 20, 2017 at 16:05 comment added mccainz Granted it is not a perfect answer, but it balances its opposite quite nicely and the phrasing itself is very common in English usage, if not idiomatic.
Jul 20, 2017 at 16:00 comment added tparker This would be what I'm looking for, but note that in the first three pages of Google book search results, only one entry ("About 25km (16 miles) south-west of Puebla (as the crow flies, not as the road winds) is El Berrueco, with a 13th-century church and the huge El Atazar reservoir") actually refers to distance.
Jul 20, 2017 at 15:33 comment added Aliden I feel like this, along with the OP's phrase and my answer, form a nice spectrum: 'as the crow flies' - straight line distance; 'as the wolf runs' - shortest overland distance; 'as the road winds' - shortest well-traveled distance
Jul 20, 2017 at 13:36 history edited mccainz CC BY-SA 3.0
added 381 characters in body
Jul 20, 2017 at 13:28 comment added thomj1332 Granted, but the OP did specifically ask for a widely-accepted term. You just made this up. +1 for creativity though.
Jul 20, 2017 at 13:11 comment added mccainz I would question the downvote as none of the other answers are idiomatic either, and most don't even supply phrase form solutions. I simply point this out.
Jul 20, 2017 at 13:01 history answered mccainz CC BY-SA 3.0