End of ADS-L Digest - 14 Apr 1997 to 15 Apr 1997
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Subject: ADS-L Digest - 15 Apr 1997 to 16 Apr 1997

There are 16 messages totalling 526 lines in this issue.

Topics of the day:

 1. Grand Slam/Gotcha!/In God We Trust/Hoosier/Yankees
 2. hypercorrect intervocalic /t/ (8)
 3. appropriation of pejoratives (aka "taking ownership")
 4. A little humor (2)
 5. plea for advice (4)

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Date:  Wed, 16 Apr 1997 01:55:14 -0400
From:  "Barry A. Popik" <Bapopik[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM>
Subject: Grand Slam/Gotcha!/In God We Trust/Hoosier/Yankees

GRAND SLAM

"We are a grand slam society."
  --President Clinton, Shea Stadium, 15 April 1997

   The term comes from bridge. I sure hope he wasn't alluding to playing
all the tricks.
   Paul Dickson's BASEBALL DICTIONARY has the first citation from the Peter
Tamony file, 20 August 1940 in the San Francisco News. "Evidence that this
term did not come into use until 1940 can be found in the fact that it was
_not_ mentioned in Edward J. Nichols' 1939 thesis on baseball language,"
Dickson writes.
   OED has it under "slam" and has 1953 for baseball, 1933 for military,
and 1814 for bridge.
   I couldn't find a pre-1940 citation, and what I did find confirms "grand
slam" was not used. Perhaps I missed it, but the earliest Sporting News
citation was 23 September 1941, pg. 13, col. 7, "GRAND-SLAM HOMER SINKS
DODGERS."
   On 20 December 1934, pg. 5, cols. 2-3, the Sporting News headline reads
"Home Runs With Bases Loaded." On 16 May 1940, pg. 3, col. 3, a cartoon
character declares "Gosh, how I'd like ta knock homers an' triples with th'
bags loaded all th' time on them Yankees!" On 24 April 1939, NY
World-Telegram, pg. 16, the cartoon "Hazy Daisy" in the upper right hand
corner of the page has a newspaper that reads "SID LUCKMAN HITS HOMER WITH
BASES FULL."
   The Grand Slam quest continues, but it ain't there much before 1940.

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GOTCHA!

   I think Safire's column missed this. Check out David Crystal's THE
CAMBRIDGE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE (1995), pg. 275, for a nice
explanation of "gotcha."

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IN GOD WE TRUST

   The best source of materials on this is somewhere under my bed. Trust
me.
   I cannot do a full treatment now! I think there's an anaconda under
there!
   Safire refers to this in today's Op-Ed piece, but incredibly leaves out
"The Star-Spangled Banner," which has "In God Is Our Trust" at the end of its
fourth stanza.
   Safire writes: "Didn't Lincoln, at the insistence of his devout
Treasury Secretary, order 'In God We Trust' to appear on coins and
greenbacks?"
   Well, no.
   Coins, yes. It was used on the eagle ($10 gold piece), the double
eagle ($20 gold piece), the half eagle ($5 gold piece), the silver dollar,
the half dollar, and the quarter.
    Greenbacks came about 1956, when Lincoln was long dead.

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HOOSIER

    I made an extensive posting on this January 1, 1997 on ADS-L. No one
made a single comment. Did no one read it?
    My pile on "Hoosier" is probably the best there is anywhere. In that
posting, I uncovered five pre-1833 citations. Because of the references to
"hoosier bait," I concluded that "hoosier" was something large--a big fish.
 I distinctly eliminated "Who's yer."
    So why is this coming up again????

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YANKEES

    A new book about the New York Yankees (containing 1996 World Series
info) is out by Jay David. He states that they were called "Yankees" about
1908.
    I solved this last year.
    I traced it to April 1904 in William Randolph Hearst's NY EVENING
JOURNAL, in a sports section edited by Harry Beecher (Harriet Beecher Stowe's
grandnephew). It was also published in COMMENTS ON ETYMOLOGY. I sent it to
the Mayor of New York City, who never wrote back.
    I was never invited to the Yankees parade at City Hall.
    I was somewhere way in the back, crying.