Barry Popik's food-terminology postings

[Gerald Cohen]

I have a few thoughts about Barry's food-terminology postings:

1) His antedatings are no doubt of considerable interest to lexicographers.

2) Some of his material is interesting enough to be developed into articles.
My file cards show over 80 articles authored by Barry for my Comments
on Etymology, and food items are well represented: "ice-cream
sundae," "Tom Collins," "chicken a la king," "Bloody Mary," "crepes
suzette," "thousand island dressing," "hush puppies," "Margarita,"
"Moscow mule," "Daiquiri," "Bacardi," "Sloppy Joe's, "coffee break,"
"cappucino," "chiffon pie," "chiffon cake," "Danish pastry,"
"Margherita pizza,", "hot dog," "Material for the study of hashhouse
lingo," "free lunch." --- And this is just a small portion of his
material waiting to be developed.

3) Although Barry is some 20 years my junior, I have learned an
enormous amount just by seeing where all his interests and activities
lead. And one of my main tasks as a scholar is to see that as much of
his raw material as possible is developed into scholarly publications.

4) Rather than wondering if Barry's food-terminology messages are
appropriate for ads-l, the American Dialect Society should be
considering ways to honor him for his indefatigable contributions to
word-studies. His accomplishments have been extraordinary.

Gerald Cohen
University of Missouri-Rolla


P.S. Of course, not everyone on the list is interested in his
postings on food terminology. But the Delete button is so easy to use
that no one is required to even open the messages.