good idea for WOTY for Boston

[Dennis R. Preston]

>The Folk Etymology of the Year. I love it too.

dInIs



>  I think this is a great idea! Are you listening, Wayne and Allan? I think it
>would be GREAT if next year we had the members vote on WINDY CITY and BIG
>APPLE (and OK????? and THE WHOLE NINE YARDS????) and explain where the
>conventional wisdom is wrong.
>
>
>In a message dated 1/7/03 1:22:47 PM, dave at WILTON.NET writes:
>
>
>
>>  > -----Original Message-----
>>  > From: American Dialect Society
>>  > [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
>>  > Of RonButters at AOL.COM
>>  > Sent: Tuesday, January 07, 2003 9:57 AM
>>  > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>  > Subject: Re:       WOTY on CNN
>>  >
>>  >
>>  > In a message dated 1/7/03 10:16:56 AM, Bapopik at AOL.COM writes:
>>  >
>>  >
>>  > > I can't understand when the same journalists are approached
>>  > by the work of a
>>  > > member such as me, and they don't even respond.
>>  > >
>>  > Surely there is a lesson here, if we could only see what it is.
>>
>>  Maybe if we added a WOTY category of "Etymological Debunking of the Year"
>>  the media would take notice of at least some of Barry's work.
>>
>>  Or maybe ADS ought to issue periodic press releases of significant
>>  linguistic and etymological discoveries (or Barry could create an
>>  "institute" and do it himself). Most reporters don't do any real research
>>  or
>>  fact checking. They just regurgitate press releases. (Or to be charitable,
>>  the editors get story ideas from press releases and then tell reporters to
>>  investigate.) Don't attempt to correct them when they're wrong--no one
>>  likes
>>  to be shown up. You have to get in front and create a story that they can
>>  report on--the story isn't that they have been wrong about "Windy City" all
>>  these years, it's that someone has just discovered the true origin; never
>>  mind that the truth has been known for over fifty years. That's how the
>>  White House and public advocacy groups manipulate the media.
>>
>>

--
Dennis R. Preston
Professor of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics & Germanic, Slavic,
      Asian & African Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1027
e-mail: preston at msu.edu
phone: (517) 353-9290