ADS visibility

[Grant Barrett]

(Aaargh. Enter key in wrong place.)

> My wife, Hollis, was wearing her spectacular ADS shirt at a Celtic Day
> festival last weekend when a phonology teacher at SUNY New Paltz
> engaged her in a conversation about the ADS.  She had NEVER heard of
> it.  How could this be?  Don't instructors tell their students about
> professional societies?

As a student I'll respond by saying that I recently gave a short oral
presentation in a French conversation class about the curious pleonasm of
"loup-garou" and much of the class hadn't heard of the OED and wasn't quite
sure what etymology was. Still more were surprised to find that there is
actually a difference between dictionaries; I suppose they had been
wondering their whole short lives why there were so many dictionaries
republishing identical material.

Some had read "The Madman and the Professor," which I guess is not a bad way
to get people interested in the whole realm of words, dictionaries and
language in general. I suspect we need our own madman to write about (now,
be nice...).

--

Grant Barrett
gbarrett at worldnewyork.org
http://www.worldnewyork.org/
New York Loves You Back