"Bearded Lady" (NJ governor's wife)

[Wilson Gray]

On Aug 24, 2004, at 9:19 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "Bearded Lady" (NJ governor's wife)
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> At 7:23 AM -0700 8/24/04, Margaret Lee wrote:
>> One of the commentators on CNN called her the 'Cover Girl."
>>
>> Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:Today's NEW YORK POST headline has "Bearded
>> 1st Lady," although that headline
>> doesn't show up on the internet version of the story.
>>
>> What other slang would you call her?
>>
>
> Why treat to beat the Post's very clever pun?  "Cover girl" is OK,
> but doesn't work on as many levels.  I think "Bearded 1st Lady"
> (where the alphanumeric form of the ordinal makes it easier to get
> both "bearded lady" and hence "beard" as well as "first lady") is
> almost, but perhaps not quite up there with my all-time fave, the one
> referring to an occasion in the 90's (during the heyday of the
> "Nobody Beats the Wiz" commercials) on which the Mets' Jose Vizcaino
> was beaned (hit in the head) by a pitched ball, sparking an all-out
> rhubarb between his teammates and the opponents.  The headline:
>
> NOBODY BEANS THE VIZ
>

When Washington University defeated Harris Teachers College in
baseball14-2, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch headlined the story,
"Harassing The Teachers." Of course, for someone who says [h@'raes] and
not ['haerIs], it doesn't quite work.

-Wilson Gray

> The only problem with the Bearded Lady is that Dina McG, while an
> unwitting beard, would not normally be described as "bearded" by
> either her previous (pre-outing) status or her current (post-outing)
> one.  Or am I wrong about that?
>
> larry
>
>> http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/29227.htm
>> LONELY LIFE OF GARDEN STATE'S 1ST LADY
>>
>> By MARIANNE GARVEY
>> August 22, 2004 -- Dina McGreevey's innocent smile is captured
>> forever in a
>> framed photo hanging on a wall at the Newark restaurant where she
>> dines at
>> least once a week.
>>
>> In the picture, she's glowing as she shares a moment with a powerful
>> politician. It's not her husband, scandal-scarred Gov. Jim
>> McGreevey, but former
>> President Bill Clinton.
>>
>> McGreevey's absence from his wife's side is nothing surprising to the
>> staff
>> of the Adega Grill.
>> (...)
>>
>>
>>
>> ---------------------------------
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