Q: Coiner of "power nap"?

[Jonathan Lighter]

Perhaps surprisingly, a search of the New Yorker Archives reveals nothing of
interest about "power nap" or "power napping," with or without the addition
of "Maas" or "Cornell."

OTOH,  I get a slightly different list of hits for "power nap" almost every
time I try, so I suppose it isn't entirely conclusive. But nothing at all,
ever, for "Jim/James Maas."


JL
On Wed, Mar 17, 2010 at 12:09 PM, C.Braham/H.Hankin <hocaga at verizon.net>wrote:

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> It's James (Jim) Maas, professor of Psychology at Cornell.
>
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> Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2010 11:11 PM
> Subject: Re: Q: Coiner of "power nap"?
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> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Joel S. Berson wrote
> >> On NPR just after the change to daylight savings time, there was a
> >> piece about how to recover from the loss of sleep.  I heard a
> >> reference to a "Mott", or "Moch", or some such, at Cornell, who
> >> claimed to have coined the phrase "power nap".
> >>
> >> The OED draft rev. March 2010 has as its earliest "1986 Chicago
> >> Tribune (Nexis) 4 May 1 He attended a party until the wee hours. He
> >> had a horse to work, so instead of catching a *power nap, he went
> >> directly to the barns at 4.30 a.m., replete in tuxedo and spats."
> >>
> >> Is Mr. M---'s claim supported?  (And did the horsy set at Cornell
> >> also party hard?)
> >>
> >> Or does "power nap" go back to 1936, in The New Yorker, Vol. 12,
> >> issue 2, page 80, col. 2, snippet view:
> >>
> >> Boulware is so drunk and so terrified that he collapses (or, as one
> >> of the policemen puts it, "is so boxed, his response is to take a
> >> little power nap on the sidewalk"), while Cash does the right thing
> >> and hands over his wallet.
> >
> > The novel Lush Life by Richard Price was reviewed in an issue of the
> > New Yorker dated April 7, 2008 (online). I think this text is from the
> > review (and the novel). Apparently this is another case of faulty
> > metadata.
> >
> >
> http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2008/04/07/080407crbo_books_wood?currentPage=2
> >
> > Every text match in my search results to content in the New Yorker has
> > been incorrectly dated.
>  >
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