On Barry Popik's successes and frustrations

[Gerald Cohen]

     Keep the hanky dry, Dennis.  Barry may have encountered some
frustration in having his material properly considered by the public,
but he has also received some excellent media coverage--a wonderful
write-up by Ed Zotti in the _Wall Street Journal_, three fine
articles by Gersh Kuntzman in the _NY Post_, full acknowledgment of
his work on "the Big Apple" in a letter of mine published by "Dear
Abby," and favorable mention once in, yes, William Safire's "On
Language" column.

    But if you'd like to assign one of your M.A. or Ph.D. students a
sure-fire interesting thesis-topic, make it: "Barry Popik's
Contributions To The Study of the English Lexicon." The source
material would be the ads-l messages, Barry's published material, and
interviews with various scholars, including Barry himself. In fact,
if you limited the topic to, say, Barry's contributions to food
terminology, your student would have enough material for a thesis
right there.

---Gerald Cohen



>Date:         Sat, 29 Sep 2001
>From: "Dennis R. Preston" <preston at PILOT.MSU.EDU>
>Subject:      Re: CPL response on "Windy City"
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
>Volume II is in bed; we need someone to write an article called
>something like "Barry's Woes: Or How the Real World Doesn't Give a
>Whack about Where Words, Names, Phrases, and the Like Really Came
>From."
>
>I promise it a home (and I would be delighted to supervise an MA
>thesis on just those Barry tales).
>
>dInIs