Including your "YMCA" ads-l message in a Comments on Etymology article

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

Jim,
    The ads-l "YMCA" discussion was a very interesting one, and I've compiled the messages that you, Arnold, and Grant sent on this topic. It will appear in the October issue of Comments on Etymology, with due credit given of course, and I'll send you a complimentary copy of the issue when it appears.Please just let me know the snail-mail address you'd like it sent to.
 
Best. -- Jerry
 

	-----Original Message----- 
	From: American Dialect Society on behalf of James A. Landau 
	Sent: Thu 8/26/2004 6:32 PM 
	To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU 
	Cc: 
	Subject: YMCA
	
	

	The latest in the McGreevy soap opera concerns the Surf, which is the local
	minor-league baseball team here in Atlantic City.
	"announcer Greg Maiuro [was fired] after he dedicated a between-innings
	rendition of the song "YMCA" to McGreevey during a game on Aug. 17. The
	1970s hit song by the Village People is widely considered a gay anthem."
	
	Is it true that "YMCA" is a "gay anthem"?
	
	If so, is it due to the words?  The music?  Some irrelevant social
	association?
	
	If it is indeed a gay song, why is it played so often in what should be
	G-rated situations such as baseball games?  There can't be enough gay disk jockeys
	in this country to play that song as often as it gets played.
	
	    - Baffled in South Jersey   (aka Jim Landau)