On Barry Popik's successes and frustrations

[Dennis R. Preston]

Well, I hope lexicogrpahers will encourage students to follow up on
those excellent suggestions. For a poor old dunderheaded
sociolingusit like me, however, I like the grubbing around in the
interface between what Barry has found out and what sort of reception
it has had. (Different strokes.)

dInIs



>     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

--
Dennis R. Preston
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736