Date:  Tue, 27 Jan 1998 09:24:41 -0500
From:  Gregory {Greg} Downing <downingg[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]IS2.NYU.EDU>
Subject: Re: Sexgate explained; ADS-L again

At 02:51 AM 1/27/98 EST, you (Barry Popik) wrote:
>SEXGATE EXPLAINED
>   AMERICAN SPEECH has covered "-gate" words not once nor twice, but four
>times. See "Among the New Words" 53.3 Fall 1978, 54.4 Winter 1979, 56.4
>Winter 1981, and 59.2 Summer 1984.
>  Last Friday, it was not at all clear what this thing would be called.
>  President Clinton's "There is no improper sexual relationship" made the
>news, and a related WASHINGTON POST story with Jesse Sheidlower (an ADS
>member) was posted here by someone else.
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------
>ADS-L AGAIN
>
>  Tim and Beverly's comments were really directed at something else. If a
>joke doesn't work, you don't say anything, or you write to me privately. You
>don't "boo" me in public. They've never "cheered" me in public (and I've
>posted heaps), so where's the balance?
>

I think the present process is very painful for a lot of people, and the
jokes felt like salt in a wound to them. I don't know that people were
objecting to the sheer listing and discussion of coinages.

>  Both Tim and Beverly have written or at least strongly hinted in the past
>that anyone (me) who posts etymologies is "unprofessional" and shouldn't be on
>ADS-L.

Of course there should be more here than lexical discussion. But an email
list is the sum total of what people put into it. People who are looking to
discuss vowel-shifts or sociolinguistic issues (etc.) need to ask
themselves: If not me, who? If not now, when? Those topics, interesting as I
or others might find them, are very rarely raised by anyone. Given the
topics people do raise, the list is presently about 95% lexical and
pronunciational.

Gregory {Greg} Downing, at greg.downing[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]nyu.edu or downingg[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]is2.nyu.edu