FNHSD

[GEORGE THOMPSON]

At last I have treed the First New Haven Slang Dictionary.

To remind you folks of what this is about:  This is a booklet of
current street slang compiled by boys in the New Haven Juvenile
Detention Center.       I learned of it more than a year ago and received
my copy just as a discussion was opened here on the word "props" =
"respect", which was identified as in use on the West Coast, as I
recall.  It was in FNHSD, with an illustrative sentence, thus
establishing its currency on the East Coast as well.  I did not
at that time post information as to how copies of this
dictionary could be obtained, because I did not want the man I
had been speaking with at the Center to get a bunch of orders,
perhaps with requests for a proforma invoice, if he did not
choose to deal with that sort of bother.  Meanwhile, phonecalls
weren't returned, cards with phone numbers disappeared on my
desk and reappeared, weeks turned into months, the supply of the
FNHSD at the Center was inadvertently thrown away, a supplement was
published, the fellow I had been talking to (when I could find his
phone number) has left, and here we are in what has been marketed as
a new century.  But I now feel free to post information about
obtaining copies of these two booklets.

My copy of the FNHSD (which I gave to the library here) was an appr.
15 page booklet, 8x11, with a very attractive cover.  I have not seen
the supplement yet.  I assume that it is about the same number of
pages, and am told that it is also attractiely covered.  Since the
original FNHSD will have to be supplied by xeroxing the office copy,
it will not have its cover.

I have posted this in the past as "a gift suitable for the
philologist who has everything", but that was just a whimsy.  I do
think it is suitable for any philologist who is interested in current
street speech, as well as anyone interested in any aspect of the
sociology of the streets.  More to the point, it is very suitable for
university libraries where such topics are studied and taught.  At
present, to my knowledge, it's in only three libraries, and Larry
Horn reports that it has been stolen from one of them.  Really, it
should be more widely distributed than this.

It may be obtained from the Juvenile Detention Center, 239 Whalley
Avenue, New Haven, Conn., 06511, Attn: Jody Genovese.  Please send a
check for $5 for each copy of each of the two booklets and $3 for
postage and handling.  ($10 + $3 for the set.)  Make the checks
payable to Jody Genovese.  For those of you who will ask your
college library to buy the book, I will send Ms. Genovese a sample of
a "pro-forma" invoice, so she will know what to do if a library asks
her for one.

180pp. of au courant drivel on the construction of gender in post-
colonial narrative now costs at least $60; $10 for these interesting
booklets is a bargain by comparison.

GAT