End of ADS-L Digest - 12 Apr 1997 to 13 Apr 1997
************************************************

Subject: ADS-L Digest - 13 Apr 1997 to 14 Apr 1997

There are 7 messages totalling 249 lines in this issue.

Topics of the day:

 1. "College Widow" (from Union College!); another "Old College Try"
 2. Tom Collins (an alcoholic drink)
 3. Variation in "try"-complements?
 4. With friends like this...
 5. Hoosier (2)
 6. Melungeon once more

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date:  Mon, 14 Apr 1997 01:51:54 -0400
From:  "Barry A. Popik" <Bapopik[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM>
Subject: "College Widow" (from Union College!); another "Old College Try"

COLLEGE WIDOW:

   Another OED antedate--just scribble this in them there margins.
   The Cornell Widow (Ithaca, NY) is one of the greatest college humor
magazines, and one of the first. I believe 1896 was its first year. It
helped me with "hot dog" and many other slang items. I'd always wanted, of
course, to solve the "college widow."
   RHDAS has:

1900 DNII 29: _College-widow_, n. A girl new men meet from year to year but
whom no one every marries.
1934 Weseen _Dict. Slang_ 177: _College widow_--A noncollege girl or woman
who flirts with students.

   This misses, obviously, the Cornell Widow (1896-). It also misses OED,
which has:

COLLEGE WIDOW, _U.S. colloq._ (see quot.)
1887 _Lippincott's Mag._ Aug. 298 That class of young ladies known among the
students as "college widows," and commonly supposed to have the acquaintance
of several generations of collegians.

   I was looking for "color line" in 1874, when by accident I found--no, I
knew it was there all along and it was a stroke of genius!! Anyway, this is
from the New Orleans Picayune, 13 August 1874, pg. 4, col. 1:

In Schenectady the girls who are "left" by the college students are called
"college widows."

  THE WAY WE WERE was filmed at Union College in Schenectady. I wonder
what Barbra Streisand has to say about this.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 -----------------------------

OLD COLLEGE TRY:

  Willard Mullin has a cartoon of "The Old College Try" in the NY
World-Telegram, 16 June 1939, pg. 24. A galley master is whipping a rowing
team into shape. I was, of course, looking for the Brooklyn bum at the time.
   Directly above "college widow" in RHDAS is "college try," and this entry
is also wrong. The first entry should NOT be from the July 18, 1927 NY Sun.
 This was, indeed, the first entry in the April 1930 American Speech article,
but the second entry in that article, from the 26 November 1927 Columbus
(Ohio) Citizen, is the correct citation.
   Glad to be of help. I hope this counts toward my final grade.