Big Apple

[Mark_Mandel at DRAGONSYS.COM]

The text of http://salwen.com/apple.html is a charming and entertaining story,
but you really should make its fictional character more evident. Many people
will believe anything they see on the Web, especially if it comes from an
apparently academic source *and* is adorned with a few citations (real or not;
people hardly ever check).

"Ida, sweet as apple cider" is the sort of vaguely connected and unsupported
example I myself would bring in if I were making up such a story, and I have
often done so, but only when the context or presentation makes it clear that
this is a joke or tall tale. Your invocation of "etymological history" would
carry more weight if you actually provided checkable citations for your putative
data. Such expressions as "...by all accounts ... has been described as ... a
formidable reputation ... soon got into the habit ..." give an air of "of course
I know what I'm talking about" without providing any verification.

The capsule biographies of some of your members (http://salwen.com/snych.html)
indicate considerable experience and erudition, especially in journalism and
popular writing, but none in the field of etymology. What makes a good story is
more often than not quite different from what actually happened. As native
speakers, we all tend to think we know how our language works and develops. How
wrong that belief so often is!

Sincerely,

   Mark A. Mandel : Senior Linguist and Manager of Acoustic Data
         Mark_Mandel at dragonsys.com : Dragon Systems, Inc.
 320 Nevada St., Newton, MA 02460, USA : http://www.dragonsys.com/
                     (speaking for myself)l