Littleton/Columbine vs. Mi Lai, David Barnhart, and t-shirts

[Dennis R. Preston]

Who would have thought, after his careful upbringing and his distinguished
career, that David Barnhart would be found to be an antitoponymist. The
shame on the family!

On a jollier note, David and I are happy to announce the production of the
second "Pioneers of thge American Dialect Society t-shirt." It features our
distinguished pioneer Louise Pound (first editor of American Speech).
Chicago conference attendees will have a chance to purchase this article of
dialect clothing (along with a few, very few, remaining examples of the
First Pioneer t-shirt - featuring Charles Hall Grandgent, the "founder" of
the Society). Both of these t-shirts will, doubtless, increase in value*
over the years (and they are among the few for sale anywhere which come
with a handout).

dInIs (co-chair of the t-shirt committee)

*Increased value of such dialect wear is based on previous price increases;
the Society cannot, of course, guarantee that these shirts will actually
increase in value over the years since the antique t-shirt market is a
volitile one.



>My preference is not to jump on a geographical name.  My preference if
>Columbine is to be memorialized by ADS is to use a term such as Trench
>Coat Mafia.  It was genericized lately in the Oklahoma context of
>school shootings.
>
>Regards,
>David Barnhart
>Barnhart at highlands.com


Dennis R. Preston
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736