Date:    Fri, 1 May 1998 02:42:10 EDT
<br>From:    Bapopik <Bapopik[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM>
<br>Subject: New Yorker
<br>
<br>     What do you call a person from New York?
<br>     THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF NEW YORK CITY (1995) has this on page 1242:
<br>
<br>_Washington, George_ (...)  The earliest known use of the term "New Yorker" in
<br>a published work is contained in a letter that he wrote in 1756.
<br>
<br>      I always thought that this was odd.  Yes, presidents can popularize
<br>words and phrases (like FDR's "United Nations")--but this was a PRIVATE
<br>letter, not intended for mass readership, sent over a generation BEFORE he
<br>became President. I believed he got undue credit for "New Yorker" because he
<br>later became such a famous New Yorker (the first Presidential inauguration,
<br>George Washington Bridge to New Jersey, Washington Square Park at NYU) and
<br>because, well, what other letters does one read from 1756??
<br>      The letter can be found in WRITINGS, Vol. 1, "TO JOHN ROBINSON," 5
<br>August 1756.  On page 315 is "the Jerseys and New Yorkers."
<br>       This comes up now because I've just submitted something to THE NEW
<br>YORKER magazine.  I wrote up my February 28th lecture before the Society for
<br>American Baseball Research and sent WHO NAMED THE NEW YORK YANKEES? to them
<br>cold.  (I did this many years ago with "the Big Apple" and got no response.)
<br>They have accepted ADS members in the past (Mencken, Read on "O. K.," for
<br>example) and I can't think of stories more relevant to New Yorkers.  And if I
<br>solve "New Yorker"--
<br>        The PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE is on CD-ROM from 1728-1783; the newspaper
<br>has been described as "THE NEW YORK TIMES" of early America.  I decided to
<br>give it a go with "New Yorker."
<br>        There were two early hits from the 1750s.
<br>
<br>June 20, 1755--"The Yorker had taken 50 hogsheads of melasses on board..."
<br>
<br>July 1, 1756--"New York, June 28...A letter from a New Yorker in the West
<br>Indies, dated May 29, 1756..."
<br>
<br>        If you ever see anyone from THE NEW YORKER, tell him or her that the
<br>guy who solved New Yorker, Big Apple, Great White Way, New York's Finest, New
<br>York Yankees, Bronx Bombers, Miss Manhattan, and...hel-LO!, would really,
<br>really enjoy the pleasure of rejection slip!
<br>