"Big Apple" indeed!

[Gerald Cohen]

>At 9:18 PM -0500 10/13/02, Mike Salovesh wrote:
>The juxtaposition of two NYC items in one post from Barry Popik prompted
>me to a stunning realization. Doesn't it make sense that if "Big Apple"
>came out of the speech of stable hands, it's a way of saying that NYC is
>a big horse apple? (For those who never heard of horse apples, that's
>just a label for horsecrap.)

     No. The New Orleans stable hands clearly regarded "the big apple"
(= NYC racetracks) as something highly desirable, the big time in
horseracing; There's no pejorative overtone here. Apples were once
regarded as something special, and the big red delicious apples were
extra special.

Gerald Cohen