I was recently surprised to see this used as an expression. As in, "he does not expand on how the district has been overrun for too many years by Eli Broad and his Bonfire of the Vanities partners such as Reed Hastings, the Waltons, etc., in their goal to take over all aspects of America’s free public schools and turn them into free market Wall Street investment profiteering."

I'm not sure the quoted blog comment even uses this correctly. Sounds more like he meant "burning their bridges." Urban Dictionary's definition is the only reference I could find.

Have you seen this?

While the original meaning traces back to Savonarola, it seems the author is basing his comments on the book by Thomas Wolfe which dealt with the excesses of Wall Street.

hmm I think you're onto something. I was trying to squeeze Savonarola's bonfire into the mix, thinking the writer was assigning a puritanical motive to undermining public-school funding. But that would apply to anti-secularists, not profiteers. Nice catch!

Nevertheless I like this phrase & may attempt to use it in its original sense. Must put hours watching "Borgias" into use!

Savonarola? I thought the Medicis made a bonfire outa him, and his anti-papist efforts were thus in vain.

Yes, I read the book when it was out - quite good. I agree, Bethree, that it is a term worth using.

If you set a sea cow's rear ablaze it's the bunfire of the manitees.

Arson at Fox News is Bonfire of the Hannitys.

English major lights up trashed textbooks: binfire of the humanities

I like it, B3! Then there was the mute monk who wrote an exegesis of apocrypha: the dumb friar of the Maccabees.