Superstar and other stars
Bapopik at AOL.COM
Bapopik at AOL.COM
Thu Sep 21 18:41:52 UTC 2000
I pressed SEND and the computer jammed and my work was lost. Everything
I wrote the past hour has been destroyed, and I lose a precious hour before I
leave for the airport. I'm in tears.
This is a rush, replacement job on another computer
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FRED SHAPIRO'S WEB SITE
It has lots of stuff on it! It's gonna get even better! I might even
work for it! Visit it, and try it again and again!
The "Play it again, Sam" should have been accompanied by a smiley. Play
the site again and again!
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SUPERSTAR
Andy Warhol "coined" superstar in the 1960s. OED has 1969. But he
didn't coin "superstar." OED has 1926! Then there's a large gap!
Obviously, "superstar" was in everyone's collective consciousness way before
Warhol coined it, right?
This happens with "science fiction." It happens with "jinx." It happens
a lot. I have always said that dictionaries should cite everything, with
explanatory notes. But if someone, or everyone, is gonna take that first
citation and ignore everything else--I can't stop 'em, but it's not the truth.
14 April 1966, VILLAGE VOICE, pg. 18, col. 2--Andy Wahol's new discotheque
seems to be an attempt to instill permanence into a private joke. (Col. 2
continuation--ed.) ...a girl named Ingrid Superstar.
MAKE LOVE, NOT WAR; BETTER RED THAN DEAD
(Not in the revised OED entry under "Make"?--ed.)
21 April 1966, VILLAGE VOICE, pg. 22, col. 3--Nearby, there is one
non-aligned table which sports a sample of everybody else's buttons and
bumper stickers, a happy amalgam of "Make Love, Not War," "support the
National Liberation Front," and "Let's Legalize Pot."
12 May 1966, VILLAGE VOICE, pg. 7, col. 2--His ballast on the right consists
of such sentiments as "Bomb Hanoi," "Better Dead Than Red," and the presently
chic "I FIght Poverty--I Work."
BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE; JET SET
5 May 1966, VILLAGE VOICE, pg. 18, col. 3--Many of the jet-set "beautiful
people" clearly come into this groiup--nomadism is another symptom.
WHAT'S UP?
This usage comes from Times Square.
5 May 1966, pg. 17, col. 3--"Hey, man, what's up?" asks French.
ROUSTING
14 April 1966, pg. 24, col. 2--This police procedure, which Lawrence calls
"rousting," is often used, he points out, to intimidate the poor,
particularly Negroes.
RAGA ROCK
31 March 1966, VILLAGE VOICE, pg. 23, cols. 2-3 headline--Raga Rock: It''s
Not Moonlight on the Ganges.
FRUITS
31 March 1966, VILLAGE VOICE, "Peace March 1966," pg. 21, col. 2--"Fruits
Communist bastards, cowards!"
MACROBIOTICS
10 March 1966, VILLAGE VOICE, pg. 3, col. 2--(Long story about "macrobiotics
cooking. It mentions Ohsawa. Is the revised OED definition complete?--ed.)
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PERSONAL
I leave for Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria in a few hours. I'll return
on October 13th.
No one from the New York Times (although I told them I was leaving on
Thursday) has bothered to contact me about my letter to the editor. Although
I told two people that John J. Fitz Gerald's name was misspelled, they have
done nothing to correct it.
In 1988, the New York Times believed that "the Big Apple" might have
originated in 1937's Big Apple dance. A reporter was sent down to Columbia,
South Carolina. He wrote a six-column story for section A.
When I did my work and appeared before the mayor and the city council, the
New York Times (the paper of record with an ADS member writing a weekly
column) did nothing at all.
Did ANYONE thing that I would be happy with a completely buried,
error-filled two paragraphs eight years later?
Once again I leave New York City--a city with absolutely no shame. Maybe
I'll never return here. I don't know. No one waits for me with a yellow
ribbon anywhere.
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