<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN">
<html><head><style type="text/css"><!--
blockquote, dl, ul, ol, li { padding-top: 0 ; padding-bottom: 0 }
--></style><title>La crosse (Fw: another car name mishap (well,
almost))</title></head><body>
<div>This says it all :<font face="Lucida Grande" size="-1"
color="#000000"> '</font><font color="#000000">GM vice-chairman Bob
Lutz, who was in Toronto yesterday to address a gathering of GM
dealers, said he wasn't aware of LaCrosse's racy roots although he
speaks French and spent three years living in Paris'.</font></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Measuring Quebecois and/or Canadien français by a Parisien
rule! (Must be from the U.S. Head Office) If he'd looked it up
in the Dico de la langue québécoise he would have found several
interesting entries of dubious value for a car merchant -- from
'crossage' to 'crosser' to 'crosseur'. There's a history here of
Detroit having to change a car's name when learning of the
inappropriateness or lack of selling power in the cultural
translation. You'd think they'd learn.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>En passant, this isn't simply parlance among 'youth culture'. (My
edition of the DLQ is almost 25 years old.) It's older; connected to
the First Nations game (and Canada's national sport) 'la crosse' --
which is also the name of the la crosse stick, and for hockey stick
and golf sticks and all those sticks with little curved ends, and by
extension 'stick' and by further extension, forms of 'using the
stick'. You get the idea. A very masculine trope. A very attractive
range of words for sports enthusiasts, Americanists, onanists, young
men ...</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>cheers,</div>
<div>m.</div>
<div>---</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Date: Mon, 20 Oct 2003 17:15:31 -0400</div>
<div>Subject: Re: Fw: another car name mishap (well, almost)<br>
From: "P. Kerim Friedman" <kerim.list@oxus.net></div>
<div>To: linganth@cc.rochester.edu</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>It seems to be true, see here (especially the comments):<br>
</div>
<div>http://www.languagehat.com/archives/000917.php<br>
<br>
- kerim<br>
<br>
On Monday, October 20, 2003, at 03:56 PM, Harriet Ottenheimer
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Not sure if this is for real. A
colleague sent it to me.<br>
<br>
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2003/10/16/227790.html<br>
<br>
Does anyone know about this?<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite> ---Harriet Ottenheimer</blockquote>
</body>
</html>