Inner Prescriptivism

[Jonathan Lighter]

Just so there's no confusion here:"Tom Swiftiea" were joke pattern of brief but phenomenal popularity which took the form

   "Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah...," said Tom, [adverb or adverbial phrase containing hideous pun]."

  I may have once known why the name of Tom Swift, the boys' adventure hero of the early 20th C., should have returned to the Marketplace of Ideas in the mid-60's, but, if so, I can no longer remember.

  As I heard it, the Swiftie in question began, "' I'm not queer," ejaculated Tom....' "

  See, he was only half.... Aaah, forget it.

  As far as I can tell, it had nothing whatever to do with Ernest Hemingway.

  JL

sagehen <sagehen at WESTELCOM.COM> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: sagehen
Subject: Re: Inner Prescriptivism
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>For the historical record, I heard that one in NYC in 1964-65. At that
>time, though, Ernest was not dead.
>
> JL
~~~~~~~~~
Er, if you're talking Hemingway........
I remember reading about EH's death while sitting eating breakfast in a
cafe in Casper, WY in (probably late June) 1961. At the time it was given
out that it had been an accident "while cleaning his gun."
AM




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