End of ADS-L Digest - 3 Dec 1997 to 4 Dec 1997 ********************************************** Subject: ADS-L Digest - 4 Dec 1997 to 5 Dec 1997 There are 17 messages totalling 492 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. There Was a Little Girl; O.K.; Onion; Poker; Billiards; Glass Ceiling 2. "Ich bin ein Berliner" (3) 3. PopChar (2) 4. seeking Ebonics info 5. Southern dialectology 6. There Was a Little Girl 7. Judas Q. Priest (5) 8. Uvular R 9. help with a word history (2) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 5 Dec 1997 02:24:09 EST From: Bapopik Subject: There Was a Little Girl; O.K.; Onion; Poker; Billiards; Glass Ceiling THERE WAS A LITTLE GIRL There was a little girl Who had a little curl Right in the middle of her forehead; When she was good She was very, very good, But when she was bad, She was horrid. "There Was a Little Girl," 1883, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (as quoted on page 298 of Stuart Beg Flexner's LISTENING TO AMERICA.) That 1883 date would take some doing. Henry Wadworth Longfellow was born in 1807 and died in 1882. (I'm not even trying to find these things, I swear!) Neither the AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN QUOTATIONS nor BARTLETT'S date the poem; Bartlett's goes in chronological order and lists the poem between 1879 and 1882 poems. Tom Dalzell didn't ask for "sin poems," but this is a famous one. In baseball slang, pitchers are sometimes called "the girl with the curl." The fastball can be "working," and the pitcher is very, very good. Or the pitcher is very, very bad and gives up home runs, and heads for an early shower. Philip Roth wrote a book called WHEN SHE WAS GOOD. I tried this phrase on the internet, and the Spice Girls came up. A 1997 book by Patricia Pearson is titled WHEN SHE WAS BAD--VIOLENT WOMEN AND THE MYTH OF INNOCENCE. There's not much for anyone to add here, except for an idiot like me, who checks the New York Sun, 14 March 1871, pg. 2, col. 7: There was a little girl, And she had a little curl That hung right down on her forehead. And when she was good She was very, very good, But when she was bad, she was horrid. This (two days later) is from the New York Sun, 16 March 1871, pg. 2, col. 7: A feeble contribution to the volume which shall contain the story of the "Little Girl who had a Little Curl:" There was a little boy Who had for a toy A clothes-line hung on a pulley He would often seize the end, And be hoisted by a friend Remarking meanwhile, "Oh, it's bully!" Great! First Henry Clay, now Henry Longfellow! The Sun's poems are unattributed. I haven't researched this, but they're earlier than the published Longfellow poem. Also, for a six-line poem, three lines are slightly different! Do we have a stolen or an early "girl"? Until I get to the library... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------- OTTO KIMMEL'S COOKIES (O. K.) The Massachusetts Historical Society had nothing about a supposed Boston baker named Otto Kimmel, who put "O. K." on his vanilla cookies. The Boston Society looked for the name in census records and didn't find it. This doesn't mean that the Chicago Tribune note I posted recently is wrong (Kimmel's bakery might have been in a Boston suburb), but there's nothing at this time that supports it. Unfortunately, I don't know where the Chicago Tribune poster got his information. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------ ONION (BASEBALL) Moving from cookies to onions, the RHHDAS has July 1917 for when a baseball was called an "onion" (it was also called an "apple," a "pill," and other names). In the Milwaukee Journal, 3 October 1916, pg. 12, the comic strip "IN BASEBALL BEANTOWN," the catcher says, "You don't have to pitch. Just hand me th' onion!" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------ POKER, continued In the New York Sun, "POKER FOR JOHNNY BULL," 4 March 1871, pg. 3, col. 2, there are: ...threes of "tray." ..."the downs"--that is, offering to bet as much money as all on the table. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------- BILLIARD WORLD In the New York Sun, "THE CHAMPION'S LAWSUIT/ AN EXPOSURE OF THE SECRETS OF THE BILLIARD WORLD," 18 February 1871, pg. 3, col. 3: ...he has been regarded as a "LUNCHER" AND A MACER." Mr. Rudd--I object, your Honor. Witness (continuing)--By a "macer" I mean a "striker," a man who will strike his victim for ten cents up to as much as that victim will stand; a "luncher" is a-- ...Humphreys deliberately "THREW A GAME" on which $200 was bet, for $25. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------- GLASS CEILING Back in the '70s, guys had "glass ceilings" for their sexual conquests. I never understood this. Say the woman is on the bottom. She looks up at the glass ceiling, checks out the guy's butt--maybe that's why you don't see 'em anymore! The perfect publication for this phrase is WORKING WOMAN magazine (1976--). So late today (the library closes at about 6:45 p.m.) I went to SIBL, the New York Public Library's Science Industry, and Business Library on 34th Street. They didn't have WORKING WOMAN. It's on microfilm at the 42nd Street Library--which closed at 5:45 p.m. today! I calmly, calmly pointed out that this is the Science, Industry, and BUSINESS Library, and that the publication is called WORKING WOMAN, and that not only WOULD IT MAKE PERFECT SENSE for this branch to have it, but I had gone on the internet the night before and IT SAID THAT THIS F**KING BRANCH HAD IT!!!!!! I'm perfectly calm. I won't hit the ceiling...