Privishing; HK Slang; NY POST's new Liberty Awards

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

   Greetings from New York City.

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PRIVISHING

   I joined the National Writers Union to pay for health insurance with them.
 (I can't even _pay_ for health insurance working as a public servant in
Parking Violations.)  NWU publishes AMERICAN WRITER, and from the
just-received Summer 2002 issue, pg. 10:

_Privishing: Publishing's Dirty Little Secret_
BY CHARLOTTE DENNETT
   I first wrote about privishing 18 years ago, in the March 1984 edition of
_American Writer_.  "Privishing," I explained, "is a practice little known to
authors.  It happens when publishers kill off troublesome books by
'privately' publishing them without any promotional fanfare."
   Privishing is the private sector's equivalent to censorship, and it
usually occurs so quietly, so imperceptibly, that authors are the last to
know, if they know at all.
   Today, most writers still don't know what privishing is; in fact, they've
never even heard of the word.

(A box states that privishing is "a word that had never made it into
Webster's Dictionary."  WEBSTER's Dictionary?  Which one?  National Writers
Union, for shame!--ed.)

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HK SLANG

   That "ONE DOLLAR ONE LOOK" slang book from Hong Kong does have an author.
The name is on the back page, not the front.  It is Adam Yuen-chung Lui,
professor and former head of the History Department, University of Hong Kong.

   From Page 3:  "I can be reached by e-mail ayclui at hkucc.hku.hk or by mail
(address: History Department, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong
Kong)."
   The bibliography includes these books:

Jong Jaahk Yih, CANTON AND HONG KONG POPULAR SLANG. (No date--ed.)
Jyu Wihng Kaai, A DICTIONARY OF HONG KONG SLANG WITH PUTONGHUA TRANSLATIONS
(1997)..
Hgai Wai Sun, CANTONESE AND HONG KONG SLANG, RHYMED EXPRESSIONS AND POEM
(1997).
Sung Siu Kwong, FUNNY HONG KONG SLANG (1992).
Sung Siu Kwong, SMART HONG KONG SLANG (1992).
Sung Yuk Mahn, INTERESTING EXAMPLES OF CANTONESE SLANG (1986).

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PROOFLISTEN; GARAGE WINE

   "Prooflisten" and "garage wine" were two of Paul McFedries "WordSpy" words
the past two days.  Both have been on ADS-L.  "Garage wine" I'd discussed a
while ago.  I don't mind that I didn't receive credit--I mind that he added
"Bridezilla" this past week, too.
   Bridezilla?  The -zillas (think of Mozilla) are hardly original and are at
least thirty years old...Bridezilla.  I'll never get married now!

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LIBERTY AWARDS

"They, and others like them, have helped make the "Big Apple" a global symbol
of freedom and opportunity."
--New York Governor George Pataki, speaking about the Liberty Awards in
Thursday's NEW YORK POST

   Today's (Friday's) NEW YORK POST has the new "Liberty Award" winners.  As
expected, I didn't win.  The Missouri marble lady (from the BANANA SCULPTOR
book) probably stood a better chance.
   There are several categories where I couldn't have qualified.  For
example, two categories are "NEW  YORK'S FINEST" and "NEW YORK'S
BRAVEST"--two terms I did on ADS-L a long time ago.
   I could have won the AMABASSADOR AWARD for, among other things, traveling
the world at my own expense to enter foreign words.  It was won by an
81-year-old waiter at Shea Stadium's Diamond Club who travels the world.
   I could have won the LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD.  TWO people were awarded
this medal.  One is a single mother who rose from public assistance to become
a school principal, and the other is a surgeon who donates his services to
the NYPD.
   No one knows what I've done and what I've been through for New York City,
so I probably wasn't even nominated.  If I ever get even a single letter that
says "thank you," it will be the first.
   My money would be on the marble lady.