a small plea

[George Thompson]

In as much as there is no filter now in place that prevents people from posting messages about the word for chicken-coop used on the north bank of the Monongahela, and the fascinating way that it is pronounced, I see no reason to think that the discussions here are not already as broad was the contributors choose to make them.  Let Dennis and those who share his interests post whatever they please.  I have a delete button, too, and I know how to use it.

I am aware that some of us who are interested in the history of words are not outstanding wheat-from-chaff-sifters, but an excellent way to reduce the volume of otiose messages to this list, and one that's within the reach of us all, is to refrain from posting messages announcing that we find some messages uninteresting.  That, and refraining from posting whimsicalities about other folk's typing errors.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African
Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dennis R. Preston" <preston at PILOT.MSU.EDU>
Date: Thursday, October 30, 2003 8:27 am
Subject: Re: a small plea

> I was thinking of broadening the range of our discussions.
>
> dInIs
>
> >The biggest mistake our organization could make would be to limit
> >the range of discussion. The contributions that scholars like Fred
> >Shapiro, Barry Popik, Douglas Wilson, Sam Clements, John Baker and
> >others have made are considerable.  The topics in _American Speech_
> >and the works of Allen Walker Read (honored repeatedly, and with
> >good reason, by the American Dialect Society) go beyond language
> >variation.
> >     For those not interested in certain topics, the delete key does
> >work. And a bit of weariness in the finger is a small price to pay
> >for the great wealth of information that comes down the pike in the
> >ads-l messages.
> >I, for one, find this variety an invaluable asset in my research.
> >
> >Al;l good wishes.
> >Gerald Cohen
> >
> >P.S. Lois Nathan's question is a reasonable one. I'm off to class
> >now but will send an answer this evening (unless Barry beats me to
> >it).
> >
> >       -----Original Message-----
> >       From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Dennis R. Preston
> >       Sent: Thu 10/30/2003 5:45 AM
> >       To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> >       Cc:
> >       Subject: Re: a small plea
> >
> >
> >
> >       In the interests of the rather more general purposes of
> this list,
> >       having to do with language variation in the Americas and
> not almost
> >       exclusively the half-second antedating of a word or phrase
> or the
> >       bashing of those who have not seen the most recent
> thoughts on such,
> >       could this be answered privately. I know it's easy to
> delete, but my
> >       delete finger is growing weary.
> >
> >       Hopefully,
> >
> >       dInIs
> >
> >
> >
> >       Hi sports fans, food word searchers and all interested
> parties,>            www.bluemountain.com the other day was
> running a pop-up
> >quiz where they
> >       ask you to guess the term for "hot dog" in 1905.  They claim
> >it was "dachshund
> >       sausage", popularized by sportswriter Tad Dorgan.  Is this
> true?>
> >       Lois Nathan
> >
> >       --
> >       Dennis R. Preston
> >       University Distinguished Professor
> >       Department of Linguistics & Germanic, Slavic,
> >             Asian & African Languages
> >       Michigan State University
> >       East Lansing, MI 48824-1027
> >       e-mail: preston at msu.edu
> >       phone: (517) 432-3099
> >
>
> --
> Dennis R. Preston
> University Distinguished Professor
> Department of Linguistics & Germanic, Slavic,
>      Asian & African Languages
> Michigan State University
> East Lansing, MI 48824-1027
> e-mail: preston at msu.edu
> phone: (517) 432-3099
>