Query: Self-portrait (was autograph)

[Laurence Horn]

At 4:18 PM -0400 7/11/00, RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:
>In a message dated 7/10/2000 2:11:38 PM, lynnem at COGS.SUSX.AC.UK writes:
>
><< No, I don't think it's regional.  It's a universal lame attempt at
>banter >>
>
>I agree. This puts me in mind of something I have heard several times in the
>South: the use of "self-portrait" to mean not 'portrait of the painter by the
>painter' but 'portrait of the owner of the painting' or even 'portrait of the
>person being honored'. Several years ago my son-in-law Carl's baseball jersey
>was retired in a ceremony at his the college where he played baseball as a
>student; there was a banquet and a portrait of Carl was unveiled which the
>local papers described as a "self-portrait" even though Carl neither owned it
>or painted it (or even sat for the painting, which was made from a
>photograph). Is this regional or America-wide?

don't know that one, but something that always rankles me is the use of
"self-titled album" to mean an album with the same name as the recording
artist, where it always sounds to me as though the artist came up with the
name of the album without any help.

larry