CPL response on "Windy City"

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

This is actually pretty interesting as a discussion of the total
imperviousness of folk culture to linguistic reality. Dennis Preston: Is it
too late to add a chapter to HANDBOOK OF PERCEPTUAL DIALECTOLOGY II?


In a message dated 9/28/2001 3:28:33 PM, Bapopik at AOL.COM writes:

<<    The Chicago Public Library responded on "Windy City."

   "Windy City" is explained in _two_ places on the CPL web site.  They are
correcting the place where it says that Charles A. Dana "coined" the term.

   However, the other explanation must also be corrected.  Charles A. Dana
didn't even "popularize" the term.  SPORTING LIFE had "Windy City" in a list
of city nicknames in 1886.

   It is wrong to state that "Windy City" comes from early 19th-century
Chicago boosterism.  No one seems to be bothered that there is not one single
citation to support this.

  Chicago's wind was known for a long time ("windy city of Chicago" was in
1880s PUCK).  However, I did extensive checking of the 1884 political
conventions in Chicago, and "Windy City" was _not_ used.  It was not until
the Chicago Tribune's extensive pushing of Chicago's summer breeze making it
an excellent summer resort (later explained by the Tribune on September 11,
1886) that the city nickname came to be applied.

  The Chicago Tribune still won't respond to me.  Write to their Public
Editor (Don Wycliff at dwycliff at tribune.com) and try for yourself.


--Barry Popik

Bapopik at aol.com >>