Snail Salad vs. May breakfast etc.

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

In a message dated 1/28/03 3:34:54 PM, Bapopik at AOL.COM writes:

>    Do I have to waste my time comparing and contrasting "snail salad" with 
> "lexicon inflator"?
> 
There is a difference between SNAIL SALAD on the one hand and "stuffies ... 
New York System ...   ... May breakfast ... doughboys ... johnnycake and 
cabinet." These items are all opaque. Their meaning is not apparent from the 
sum of the parts of each. Dictionaries are less inclined to consider 
compounds as worthwshile entries if they are opaque and highly productive. 
Probably few people outside the South eat collard salad, but that doesn't 
mean that COLLARD SALAD is a regionalism.

The fact that somebody in 1987 said that people in Rhode Island eat snail 
salad doesn't make the eating of snails regional, nor does it make SNAIL 
SALAD regional. Anywhere that people eat snails and meat salad they doubtless 
eat snail salad. This includes Hollywood, which is a right far piece from 
Rhode Island.

I hope David Barnhardt is outtside playing with his children in the coastal 
New Yorrk snow. He is a good guy and I'm sorry folks seem to think he is 
lost. Maybe he went to Chicago to eat snail salad with all the Italians who 
settled there. Or to New Orleans to eat snail salad with the French.