Date: Fri, 14 Nov 1997 01:29:26 -0500 From: "Barry A. Popik" Subject: For the Love of Mike; Let's Go!; Cop; The Jinx FOR THE LOVE OF MIKE "For the Love of Mike" was discussed last year, and it's in the RHHDAS H-O (pg. 473), starting with 1892. I tied it in with Mike Tyson and Michael Jordan news stories. It's assumed by the RHHDAS that "Mike" is a euphemism for "God," but that need not be so. The source (which I found after that posting) may instead be a Little Orphan Annie-type character from Philadelphia. This is from the World, 23 November 1879, pg. 10, col. 5: LITTLE MIKE. Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. ("Little Mike," a lonely little waif, who died in the Children's Hospital some time ago, lay all the day before his death plaintively watching several children who were pronounced cured and whose friends had come to remove them; and then, with a pitiful ache in his voice, turned to the nurse in charge, saying, "Dear Nurse, when will my friends come? All the rest going, only I have no home.") I. Only a hospital child! Why let fall a tear? Only a hired nurse Standing beside the bier! (,,,) VII. Only "I have no friends! Dear Nurse, when will they come? See! all the others going, Only I have no home! VIII. Only a short, short waiting! White-winged Friends have come And borne the little lone one Up to Love and a Home! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -------------------------------------------- LET'S GO! In my "No Man's Land" posting, the alleged author of that phrase also claimed authorship of "Let's go!" This is from the Milwaukee Journal, 1 March 1919, pg. 4, col. 3: "LET'S GO!" It was left for the colored troops to coin one of the most distinctly American slogans of the war. A colonel of one of the negro regiments stated that his men received every order with the formula: "Let's go!" Were they told to march, to patrol, to raid or to charge, they answered with the same expression of hearty good will--and went. "Let's go!" It is a truly American sentiment. It expresses action, rather than waiting. It is what the whole nation said when the period of letter writing was over. It was the fighting watchword from Cantigny to Sedan. Nay, it is the watchword still, for when America is called upon to go over the top for a lasting peace, be sure she will answer, "Let's go."--Chicago Journal. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -------------------------------------------- COP Evan Morris's Sunday Daily News column explained "Cop." I like the little poem in this explanation, from the Philadelphia Inquirer, Everybody's Column, 19 February 1905, pg. 8, col. 7: A "COP" (C. B. L.).--"Please tell me in Everybody's Column how the word "cop" came to be applied to the policemen. There has been a favorite rhyme among English schoolboys for generations past which says: "He that cops what isn't his'n, Will be copped and put to prison." This verb "to cop," you see, is an old-timer, meaning "to take," "to catch," "to capture;" naturally enough a "copper" is a "catcher" (a policeman); and (although none of our dictionaries says so) "cop" seems to us to be nothing more than a free-and-easy popular abbreviation of "copper." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------- THE JINX Left out of my study of the "jinx" (and left out of the RHHDAS and the DA as well) was an important citation--THE JINX: STORIES OF THE DIAMOND by Allen Sangree (1910). See the New York Times Review of it (which I don't have here). This is from page 31 of the book: But the ball players instantly knew the truth. "A jinx, a jinx," they whispered along the bench. "Cross-eyed girl sittin' over there back o' third. See her? She's got Th' Dasher. Holy smoke, look at them eyes!" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -------------------------------------------- Is it too late for a multi-part Veterans Day special?