Vals Kilmer (like "attorneys general"?)

[Robert Fitzke]

Speaking of words and phrases that are created to "meet a need" or serve a
special purpose, I'm grappling with the recent pop culture use of the word "
length" to describe a basketball player or team that has height, as in such
and such team has length, or so in so has length.

Oddly, my dad, born in 1897, told me someone in his home town of LaSalle,
IL, used to call him "Lengthy" (He was 6' 2 1/2"; very tall for the times.

Bob .
----- Original Message -----
From: "Charles Doyle" <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2006 10:37 AM
Subject: Re: Vals Kilmer (like "attorneys general"?)


> LexisNexis gives some instances of both "Team America"
> and "Team U.S.A." from the 1970s, in reference to both
> hockey and soccer.
>
> --Charlie
>
>
> ---- Original message ----
>>Date: Tue, 28 Mar 2006 09:48:37 -0800
>>From: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
>>Subject: Re: Vals Kilmer (like "attorneys general"?)
>>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header ----
> -------------------
>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-
> L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
>>Subject:      Re: Vals Kilmer (like "attorneys general"?)
>>------------------------------------------------------------
> -------------------
>>
>>The U.S. Olympic Hockey Team was nicknamed "Team U.S.A."
> after  (probably even during) its "miracle" upset of
> the "unbeatable" Soviet team in the 1980 Winter Games.
>>
>>  This was an especially dramatic moment because the USSR
> had just moved into Afghanistan, and many commentators were
> prophesying nuclear doom just around the corner.  (Because
> Jimmy Carter had allegedly made our military defenseless. I
> vividly remember an op-ed writer in the _Washington Post_
> reporting that he had already secured two kinds of pills for
> himself and his family : anti-radiation and suicide.)
>>
>>  Since then, though, infotainment science has demonstrated
> that the hockey upset was the actual turning point of the
> Cold War, leading directly to the fall of the Soviet Empire
> barely more than a decade later.
>>
>>  Hence "Team America" for all our guys 'n' gals.
>>
>>  JL
>>
>>
>>Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU> wrote:
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header --
> ---------------------
>>Sender: American Dialect Society
>>Poster: Charles Doyle
>>Subject: Re: Vals Kilmer (like "attorneys general"?)
>>------------------------------------------------------------
> -------------------
>>
>>And why, during the last few cycles of Olympic games, has
>>the American team become "Team America"?
>>
>>--Charlie
>
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