"slang" and "informal" as dict labels [WAS: shirty?]

[Laurence Horn]

At 5:33 PM -0500 2/20/03, Alice Faber wrote:
>James A. Landau said:
>>
>>"Jersey Devil" (never "New Jersey Devil") is the local legend around here.
>>He is not a Mephistoles but more of a mischief-maker said to haunt the local
>>Pinelands.  The 177th Fighter Squadron based at the airport where I work is
>>the "Jersey Devils".  The Jersey Devil legend is documented from at least the
>>early 19th Century and may have originated as an actual person of the 18th
>>Century (if so, his name was probably "Leeds").  The hockey team "New Jersey
>>Devils" came long after the Jersey Devil legend and I don't know if there is
>>any connection.
>
>When the New Jersey Devils NHL team moved to New Jersey from points
>midwestern (Kansas City, via Denver), they changed the name
>specifically to evoke the local legend. The official team page gives
>the chronology and links to a video of the then-president of the team
>announcing the new name. I didn't bother to watch the video though.
>--
I don't see them having been able to retain the immediately preceding
nickname--"the New Jersey Rockies" doesn't quite make it, although
we've learned to live with the L. A. Lakers and the Utah Jazz.  The
Devils could have resumed being the nondescript Scouts, as they were
in K.C. before their Rocky incarnation.  But the current sobriquet is
much more evocative (even without the local legend), and they've
certainly been a lot more successful as the Devils than they ever
were as the Scouts or Rockies.

L