yankee swap/chinese auction

[Laurence Horn]

At 11:06 AM -0500 12/13/04, Dale Coye wrote:
>In a message dated 12/13/2004 10:52:38 AM Eastern Standard Time,
>vneufeldt at MERRIAM-WEBSTER.COM writes:
>Actually, I think these sorts of terms are usually extremely fluid; a
>person grows up with one term or set of terms and then discovers that
>it's all different -- even opposite -- in other places.
>Yes, that's right.  And the other thing that's interesting is how calling it
>a "Chinese" Auction brings with it the idea that it's a bit nutty, like those
>amusing Chinese people themselves,


cf. e.g. Chinese fire drill and Chinese handball (neither of which, I
suspect, have an actual sino-heritage)

>while calling it "Yankee" is not negative
>at all, it carries with it a sense of pride, quaint heritage and
>those kinds of
>positives , doesn't  it?
>
>Dale Coye
>Wilton NH