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

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated 2/20/03 6:08:24 PM Eastern Standard Time, dave at WILTON.NET
writes:

> The hockey team is named after the Jersey Devil of local legend:
>  http://www.newjerseydevils.com/2003/community/legend.html

Shows you how much I don't know about hockey, that I had no idea of the
history of the Devils.

However, "of local legend" is dubious, because the Devils play in the
trans-Hudson area of suburban New York City (their stadium, by the way, is in
a geological area known as the "Jersey Meadows", not "New Jerseay Meadows",
hence the name "Meadowlands").  The Jersey Devil legend is mostly in South
Jersey.  People who live in the area around the Jersey Meadows are just as
likely to know about Bigfoot as they are to know about the Jersey Devil.

Apparently some PR person didn't realize the difference between North Jersey
and South Jersey.

Also, let me correct a mistake I made.  I should have said "Pine Barrens"
rather than "Pinelands."

A note on some team names:

So the Lakers originally came from Salt Lake City? I always assumed that the
name either was derived from "LA" as the abbreviation for Los Angeles (a la
Philadelphia Phillies) or that the owner of the team was Sir Freddy Laker .

A generation ago someone posed to me the following trivia question: name the
three teams whose team name does not end in the letter "s".  The first two
are, of course, the Red Sox and the White Sox.  The third was, if I remember
correctly, the Jazz (and is the obvious guess correct that they originated in
New Orleans?)

              - Jim Landau