Phonetic alphabets

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Crossed-sabers LOGO???" LOGO????  There's a word they didn't use in the Civil War !

One invariable screwup they make in one-horse Civil War movies (including "The Red Badge of Courage" with Audie Murphy) is to put the modern crossed-rifle infantry symbol on kepis. Real Civil War infantrymen wore a hunting-horn insigne on their headgear instead.

But elsewhere in time...

"Jim Bowie, Jim Bowie!
He was a fighter, a fearless and mighty adventurin' man!
His blade as tempered an so was he!
Indestructible steel was he!
Jim Bowie! Jim Bowie!
He was a fighter, a fearless and mighty adventurin' man!"

Scott Brady seemed a lot more fearless and mighty (in the good sense) than Jason Patric in "The Alamo."  But Billy Bob was a durn good middle-aged Crockett.

JL

"James A. Landau" <JJJRLandau at AOL.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "James A. Landau"
Subject: Re: Phonetic alphabets
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In a message dated Tue, 7 Dec 2004 15:17:03 -0500, Wilson Gray
writes:
>
> James Bowie of knife fame was definitely a [bui]. Once upon a time,
> there was a TV adventure series based upon his life. The program had a
> theme song that began, "Jim [bui]! Jim [bui]! Jim [bui]!" The fraternal
> twins, Raymond and Rosemary Bowie, with whom I attended grade school in
> the '40's, were also [bui]. That is to say, it was once the case that
> *everybody* knew that "Bowie" was pronounced [bui].

The theme song was "Jim [bui]! Jim [bui]! He was a bold..." and I forget
what followed. It had a catchy tune.

>From my years in Washington DC I can say with some authority that Bowie
Maryland is /bui/. A coworker who lived there had a daughter who was on her
school's track team. I dubbed her the /bui boo-let/.

> Speaking of namesakes, I received an e-mail today from one "Wilson
> Gunn."

A Wilson gun would be a Garand idea, but I'm afraid it won't happen. What is
more likely is the Wilson Sword Blade razor, with the obvious advertising
slogan "A Wilson has 14 points!"

The crossed-sabers logo for the US Cavalry apparently was invented by General
James H. Wilson for the cavalry corps he commanded in the Union Army.

A list of cavalry carbines used in the Civil War: Spencer, Sharps, Burnside,
Starr, Smith, Gallagher, Maynard, Ballard, Cosmopolitan, Remington Joslyn,
and Henry (the last became the famous Winchester).

- Jim Landau


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