Date:  Sat, 8 Jun 1996 22:21:00 EDT

From:  Larry Horn <LHORN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]YALEVM.CIS.YALE.EDU>

Subject: Re: Packy revisited



>I think it's unlikely that 'paki'/'packy' in the second sense

>refers to "the ownership of many liquor stores by Pakistanis".

>Pakistani expats may be branching into the liquor business, but

>Pakistan is an Islamic republic (in which only "non-Muslims" and

>"foreigners" can legally obtain liquor) and, I think, many if not most

>expats would still try to uphold community values, at least in

>public.



Especially unlikely in the context of the use under discussion, given the

relative paucity of Pakistani-owned liquor stores in Western Massachusetts.

As we seem to have determined from the earlier discussion of the range of

these items, the distribution of "packy" is a subset of that of "package

store", which extends through much of (southern and central?) New England.

Thus there are proportionately far more "packies" along the Connecticut River

valley and adjacent areas of Massachusetts than in New Haven or Boston, but

as far as I know no such disparity can be observed in the distribution of

Pakistanis.

(Oh, and doo-wop music wasn't originated by Italians either.)



      Larry