[Ads-l] Nice Unexpected Consequence from Ben's "Oscar" Article

Shapiro, Fred fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU
Tue Feb 26 20:02:35 UTC 2019


Thanks to Ben for his fine Wall Street Journal article and the shout-out to me.  There was a nice unexpected consequence of his piece: I got a phone call from Barbara Dempsey Phillips, the daughter of Jack Dempsey, telling me about her father's frequent use of "Oscar" as a term of endearment.  I'm not sure how relevant that is to the Academy Awards, but it was interesting to talk to her.  I met Jack Dempsey in the 1960s or 1970s, when he was standing outside his restaurant in Manhattan and my father told me to say hi to Dempsey and get his autograph.


Fred Shapiro

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list