Date:    Thu, 26 Feb 1998 20:37:10 EST
<br>From:    Bapopik  Bapopik[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM 
<br>Subject: Gay nineties; United States of America; March hare
<br>
<br>GAY NINETIES
<br>
<br>     I was recently asked about the posting I made on "Gay Nineties" (written
<br>after new year's of 1997).  It should be in the ADS-L archives.  At that time,
<br>I stated that Richard Vincent Culter of LIFE magazine (the humor magazine, not
<br>the picture news magazine) coined the phrase about 1925.
<br>     A recent checking of some other portions of my files turned up this
<br>confirmation, from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Questions and Answers, 10 March
<br>1929:
<br>
<br>     The "Gay Nineties."
<br>     Kindly let me know through your paper how and from what sources the
<br>expression, "The Gay Nineties" originated, and also to what period of time it
<br>refers.
<br>     MRS. R. SHIELDS.
<br>     "The Gay Nineties" was the title of a series appearing in one of the
<br>humorous papers--Life, if we mistake not--and afterward put out in book form.
<br>The pictures represented the dress, manners and customs of the period from
<br>1890 to 1900.
<br>
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<br>UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
<br>
<br>     My "America Papers" are indeed massive, and I haven't had time to look
<br>through them all.  I haven't had the time to recheck my Yankee Doodle parodies
<br>and the humor magazines THE LANTERN and YANKEE NOTIONS for "canoodle"
<br>antedate, either.  Heck, I'm goin' to Guatemala next week and I haven't packed
<br>a thong.
<br>     "Is the Name _United States_ Singular or Plural?" by Allen Walker Read is
<br>in NAMES, vol. 22, no. 3, Sept. 1974, pp. 129-136.  I have a ton of stuff on
<br>this topic that the paper doesn't mention.
<br>    "THE NAME 'UNITED STATES OF AMERICA'" by Edmund C. Burnett was in the
<br>AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW, Notes and Suggestions, vol. 31, no. 1, Oct. 1925,
<br>pp. 79-81.
<br>
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<br>MARCH HARE
<br>
<br>     It's almost March.  "March Madness" was posted a year ago.  "Mad as a
<br>March hare" is not in Christine Ammer's new book of idioms, and it's poorly
<br>explained in Bartlett's, where John Skelton and John Heywood are both cited.
<br>This item was also in my files from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Questions and
<br>Answers, 24 March 1929:
<br>
<br>     "Mad as a March hare."
<br>     Will you kindly inform me how the expression, "Mad as a March hare,"
<br>originated and where it is found?
<br>     A. L. H.
<br>     Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable says the saying grew out of the
<br>fact that hares are usually shy and wild in March, which is their mating
<br>season.  Nuggets of Wisdom quotes the foregoing and adds:  "This explanation
<br>is discounted by a statement by Erasmus in 1542.  After using the expression,
<br>'Mad as a March hare,' Erasmus says, 'Hares are wilder in marshes from the
<br>absence of hedges and cover.'  This indicates that in the days of Erasmus the
<br>saying was 'mad as a marsh hare.'  It is not difficult to see that 'marsh'
<br>might have been corrupted into 'March' after the original meaning of the word
<br>was lost sight of."  Our correspondent may have in mind the March hare of
<br>"Alice in Wonderland."
<br>