ath and beal equal apple- citations from the tongue of the mouth of the river...

[Mark A Mandel]

(cc: to Mr. Cassidy, because I don't know if he's on the list)

On Thu, 16 Jan 2003 Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:

        [snip list of sources]

#   And we don't have a single credible citation anywhere.
#   If all this is wrong, you must prove it is wrong.

        [snip list of "requirements"]

#   Then report back on any and all "Big Apples" that you find.
#   We'll listen to you!

I will add here for Mr. Cassidy's benefit -- since I don't know if he's
on the list and familiar with Barry's research -- that Barry's words are
not empty: he *does* this. Barry spends many hours in libraries all over
the country and around the world reading early sources and taking
copious notes, which he writes up as well as posting here. We -- I
daresay we all -- respect his industriousness, care, and sheer
sitzfleisch, and his findings have been a rich source of important data
for many of the lexicographers and other researchers on this list.

-- Mark A. Mandel
   Linguistic Data Consortium, University of Pennsylvania