basketball "length" (was Re: Vals Kilmer)

Thu Mar 30 05:05:38 UTC 2006

On 3/29/06, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On 3/30/06, Robert Fitzke <fitzke at michcom.net> wrote:
> > >
> > > 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.
>
> "Lengthy"?  I wonder whether that might have been the ultimate source of an
> annoying nickname, "Linky," that I - 6' 4" and a very slim 160 lbs. - was
> once saddled with in St. Louis. I could never make any sense of "Linky,"
> but, if that originated as "Lengthy," then it makes sense.

Are you sure they weren't just calling you "lanky"?
(Just as long as they weren't calling you "hincty"!)

--Ben Zimmer

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