Date:  Tue, 13 Jan 1998 14:57:16 +0000
From:  Jim Rader <jrader[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]M-W.COM>
Subject: Re: skell again

An addendum to my just sent post on <skell>:

I neglected to add a 1991 cite for <skel> from the Village Voice that
I must have marked myself:

Village Voice, Oct. 8, 1991, p. 39 [quote from Pable Guzman, WNYW TV
newsman]
"A lot of us tend to adopt police jargon; they use the term 'skel,'
probably from skeleton. It used to mean just low-lifes but now it's
used for blacks and Puerto Ricans across the board. I hear it on our
scanner and it infuriates me."

Aside from some obvious typos in my first post, I somehow came out
with "Merriam writers" instead of "Merriam editors"; God forbid that
any of us harmless drudges should consider him- or herself a writer
on the exalted level of, say, a journalist.

Jim Rader