"88," White Power for "Heil Hitler"

[Laurence Horn]

At 4:53 PM -0400 8/28/02, Mark A Mandel wrote:
>On Wed, 28 Aug 2002, Grant Barrett wrote:
>
>#"Thanks to Target, the nationwide department-store chain, students
>#across the country may be heading back to school in hip-looking white
>#supremacist regalia. The retail giant is selling shorts and baseball
>#caps splashed with “EIGHT EIGHT” and “88” – white-power code for “Heil
>#Hitler,” because “h” is the eighth letter of the alphabet."
>#
>#What does this mean to me, who graduated high school in 1988, and
>#during the high school class battles, used to shout, "88 is great!"?
>
>Or to ham radio users, who have used 88 as a code for "Love and kisses"
>(originally in Morse Code) for many years?
>
>Or to piano players? IIRC, Mandy Patinkin played the role of the piano
>player, "Eighty-eight" Keys, in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"
>
>Or, relatedly, to jazz singers?
>         Baby, let me bang your box,
>         Baby, let me bang your box.
>         Baby, let me play your eighty-eight,
>         Let me play it till the whole house rocks!
>
>-- Mark A. Mandel

Some of which 88 keys are white, and some black, all playing together
in peaceful harmony (and each set pretty boring on its own).  Does
make you wonder.

Larry