Date:    Sun, 3 May 1998 14:05:00 EDT
<br>From:    Bapopik <Bapopik[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM>
<br>Subject: Re: Do the ADS pundits know?
<br>
<br>PUN
<br>
<br>By the way, "pun" is now shortened slang for "capital punishment."  I think
<br>there's a recording out by the group Capital Punishment called "Pun" or "Big
<br>Pun."
<br>
<br>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<br>--------------------------------------------
<br>WILLIAM SAFIRE ERRORS (a sporadic, continuing series)
<br>
<br>     I also sent the writeup of my presentation before the Society for
<br>American Baseball Research on "the naming of the New York Yankees" to The New
<br>York Times.  I got a form letter rejection.  I've been waiting eight years for
<br>them to do an article on "the Big Apple" (some people are now dead), so,
<br>obviously, I've got to work harder, better, and go through a lot more
<br>suffering before I ever get my writing published there.
<br>     This was in Safire's column ("Joe Six-Pack") in today's magazine:
<br>
<br>"...the editor William Allen White in 1937 called him _John Q. Public_..."
<br>
<br>     I posted here on ADS-L--quite a while ago--that John Q. Public was
<br>spotted in 1922, in the New York Mail.  At least a hundred ADS people must
<br>have read it!
<br>     "Joe Blow" should not be quoted to 1867, as the RHHDAS entry makes clear.
<br>I found "Joe Blow" in a Rube Goldberg cartoon prior to WWII--it might also
<br>have come from the NY Mail.
<br>     "Joe Doakes" was the name of a cartoon, and I think its origin predates
<br>1926.
<br>    Lemme read this form rejection letter again.  Gosh, I love pain.
<br>
<br>"...And we're sorry we cannot use it.  Our space is limited..."
<br>
<br>    Limited?  Have you seen all those Lifestyles sections?  The special
<br>section on "Teens"?  They can't run anything original on the history of New
<br>York City??
<br>