NY Times "On Language" columnist offer (year two)

[Laurence Horn]

At 6:35 PM -0400 7/23/00, Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:
>    William Safire, the New York Times "On Language" columnist, is on
>vacation.  I could be wrong, but I believe that his fill-in is a member of
>neither the American Dialect Society nor the American Name Society.
>    The dues for both societies are pretty dirty cheap--about $35 each.
>While "On Language" columnists are not required to have any knowledge in
>American dialects or American names--they don't have to be expert in anything
>other than having nice connections at the New York Times--still, wouldn't it
>be nice?
>    Again, the offer.  I hope this doesn't become an annual thing, like Tad
>Dorgan coining "hot dog."  This is a free deal.  I've sent out certified
>letters with stamped, self-addressed envelopes on this.
>    If the New York Times "On Language" columnists want to join the ADS and
>the ANS and cannot afford the $35 dues, I'll pay it.

And for those of you who didn't see it, the columnist Barry refers
(obliquely) to here is David Carkeet, the novelist and author of various
books set in the Midwest and featuring a linguist hero (_Double Negative_,
_The Full Catastrophe_, etc.).  Today's column rediscovers a phenomenon we
talked about back in 1995 (at the latest), what I then (in response to an
earlier posting by Bill Smith) referred to as the historical present
counterfactual as purveyed by sportscasters ("if Jones doesn't make that
play, the tying and winning runs score").  He does have a cite back in
1984, which is useful, but at the same time he claims that this
construction "sneaked into usage without notice".  If Carkeet is an ads
member and ads-l reader in 1995 he doesn't make that claim today.

larry