"upset"

[Mark A Mandel]

On Mon, 4 Mar 2002, George Thompson wrote:

        [snip great cites!]

#These accounts of the race suggest that the word "upset" was not
#familiar in the sense of "unexpected victory or loss" before this
#event.  The World stated: "One might make all sorts of puns about it
#being an upset, but Man o' War in the opinion of nine out of ten
#observers was far the better colt in the race. . . .  (August 14, 1919,
#p. 11, col. 1)  The pun did not occur to the reporters from the Tribune
#or the Times.  It occurred to the reporter for The Sun also: "Upset's
#victory was a big upset to all racegoers, even his famous trainer,
#James Rowe"; and "Golden Broom caused more than an upset", but he seems
#to have been thinking of "upset" as in "distress", for instance "upset
#stomach".

Nowadays, of course, we expect sports writers to pun whenever possible,
including when they really oughtn't, but was it always thus? Would a
contemporary reader have expected the Times and Tribune reporters to pun
if the chance had been presented?

-- Mark A. Mandel