Miracles (NY Chronology) & Non-Miracles (Chicago Public Library)

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

   We'll start with the "miracles."

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MIRACLES

   I never posted this.  It's the first mention of my work on a local tv
newscast.  Of course, my name isn't mentioned with my work, and I got no money,
and it's twelve years too late, but hey, that still counts as a miracle in New
York and my life.

http://www.nbc4.com/answerstoaskliz2003/2166421/detail.html
NYC Big Apple and New Orleans Big Easy, House Appraisal, Rebates: 4/29/03

Q: I would like to know why New York City is called the Big Apple and why New
Orleans is called the Big Easy? I've been wondering these things for ages.

A: WE WENT TO SEVERAL SOURCES TO GET YOUR ANSWER. THE NEW YORK CITY "BIG
APPLE" REFERENCE IS ATTRIBUTED TO NEW YORK CITY MORNING TELEGRAPH REPORTER JOHN J.
FITZGERALD.

HE APPARENTLY HEARD THE EXPRESSION BEING USED BY AFRICAN AMERICAN STABLE
HANDS IN NEW ORLEANS IN 1921. THEY CALLED NEW YORK "THE BIG APPLE" MEANING "THE
BIG TIME."

THE NICKNAME WASN'T WIDELY USED UNTIL A 1971 WHEN IT BECAME PART OF A NEW
YORK CONVENTION AND VISITORS BUREAU PUBLICITY CAMPAIGN.

AS FOR NEW ORLEANS, THE TERM COMES FROM A TURN OF THE CENTURY JAZZ CLUB
CALLED THE "BIG EASY HALL." IN 1970 POLICE REPORTER JAMES CANOPY WROTE A
NEW-ORELEANS BASED CRIME NOVEL CALLED "THE BIG EASY." AND MUCH OF THE CREDIT GOES TO
TIMES-PICAYUNE COLUMNIST BETTY GUILLAUD WHO POPULARIZED THE PHRASE IN THE 1970'S.



   Here's another without money or credit:

THE NEW YORK CABBIE COOKBOOK
by Mary Ellen WInston and Holly Garrison
Philadelphia: Running Press Book Publishers
2003

Pg. 44:  BIG APPLE BITE:
   It's long been believed that New York was nicknamed "the Big Apple" by
jazz musicians who regarded a gig in Harlem to be a sign that they had made it.
It turns out that it had actually first appeared in the 1920s when reporter
John Fitzgerald, who reported on horse races for the _Morning Telegraph_,
referred to the New York racetrack.  Apparently, stable hands in New Orleans called
a trip to a New York racetrack the "Big Apple"--or sweet reward--for any
talented thoroughbred.  The term passed into popular uswage long after the
racetrack disappeared.


   Here's yet another--a double this time--without money or credit.  These
are the "miracles," mind you:

THE NEW YORK CHRONOLOGY
by James Trager
New York: HarperResource
2003

Pg. 304 (1906):  The "hot dog" gets its name by some accounts from a cartoon
by Chicago cartoonist Thomas Aloysius "Tad" Dorgan, 29, who shows a dachshund
inside a frankfurter bun (see Feldman, 1867), but New Haven vendors have
reportedly been selling frankfurters from "dog wagons" to students at Yale dorms
since 1894.

Pg. 703 (1971):  The Big Apple gets that name as part of a publicity campaign
organized by New York Convention and Visitors Bureau president Charles
Gillett, who revives a nickname first popularized more than 40 years ago by _Morning
Telegraph_ reporter John J. Fitz Gerald (who had heard it used at New Orleans
by black stablehands in reference to New York's racetracks).  The name of a
popular dance in the 1930s, it was used by jazz musicians of that era to mean
New York City.

   There are a few errors.  TAD was from San Francisco, not Chicago.  But in
these brutal few months, where Bruce Kraig gets credit for my "hot dog" work
and his own book promotion is incredibly wrong, where my "Big Apple" work is
either forgotten or ignored by the New York Public Library, the New-York
Historical Society, the Gotham Center, and former mayor Ed Koch, these are miracles.

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NON-MIRACLES

   I have kept the Chicago Public Library informed of all early citations of
"the WIndy City."  No one has written back with anything at all, not even a
"thank you." Ever.   It was in May that I told the CPL to change its web site.
I was told the CPL is thinking about it.
   I told the CPL again.  Yet again, they're still "thinking."
   This is a web site.  This is a few lines of computer text that will take
about a minute or two to correct.  But it's Barry Popik--let's not do him any
favors.

Subj:   Response from CPL E-Mail Reference Team
Date:   10/29/2003 6:15:11 PM Eastern Standard Time
From:   <A HREF="mailto:refdesk at chipublib.org">refdesk at chipublib.org</A>
To: <A HREF="mailto:Bapopik at aol.com">Bapopik at aol.com</A>
Sent from the Internet (Details)

Dear Mr. Popik:

We are contacting you in reply to your E-Mail reference question.

Your question was:
Why do you still list the "Windy City" 1893 World's Fair myth?  As you
know, I have worked very, very hard, and have traced "Windy City" to 1876.

Answer:
Thank you for your thoughts re 'Windy City' on our web site.  We are
considering your suggestion and are looking into the matter.

Source:


We hope this information is useful and you will use CPL E-Mail Reference
in the future.

CPL E-Mail Reference Team


   We hope this information is useful?  How can that be useful??  They said
this four months ago!
   What other professional has to go through such misery to give away his or
her work for free?

   The American Antiquarian Society (Worcester, Massachusetts) didn't have
the CINCINNATI ENQUIRER or much of the CHICAGO TIMES, but it had one day of the
latter that was of interest.  I'll post that now.

   8 May 1876, CHICAGO TIMES, pg. 4, col. 5:
_THE WILD WIND._
_Which Tore Its Way Through_
   _Chicago with Terrible Havoc_
   _on Saturday._
(...)
_The Wind's Work._
   A tornado, momentary in duration but terrible in its strength, passed over
this city on last Saturday evening at 5 o'clock.

(The CINCINNNATI ENQUIRER would use "THAT WINDY CITY" on May 9th--ed.)

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OT: PARKING TICKETS  (non-miracles)

   The state surcharge, now $5 on every parking ticket, it going up to $15 in
two weeks.  To $15, even on a $20 meter ticket.  Plus $60 of penalties after
about 90 days.  This is worse than cigarette taxes.  There's been no publicity
about it.  The state surcharge money in the past has gone to Buffalo!
   I'll be doing parking tickets again tomorrow until 8 p.m., and then I have
more parking tickets starting at 8:30 a.m. on Friday.  I've been almost full
time this summer.
   There's a new computer system that was installed this week, so judges are
now clerks.  The chief judge and other bigs came to the Bronx to inspect the
new system.  I felt like asking a few questions:

   See this?  There are bars on the windows!  Why are there bars on the
windows?  Is this the goddamn 1911 Triangle factory?  And why do I work ten hours
straight in a room with no window at all and no air?
   There was a blackout on a Thursday/Friday.  That was over two months ago.
Why aren't we paid?
   Why did we miss another week of pay?
   Why are we paid significantly less (when we are paid) than judges at any
other city agency?  It used to be the same.
   Why was my best friend fired?  Why isn't anyone told?  Is it true that
he's suing the city for age discrimination?  Do you realize that I now work every
day in his room without air?
   Do you know that I'm the famous Barry Popik?  I once solved "the Big
Apple."  It's brought me great riches and respect...