"Windy City"--a few more thoughts

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

   When all the dust settles from the recent flurry of publicity, one fact will stand out above all others: Barry Popik accomplished with extraordinary research what no one else had even come close to doing: nailing down the origin of "Windy City." Chicago's librarians, historians, scholars, journalists--all had stumbled, bumbled, failed--whatever--they didn't get the job done.  And Barry did.

   And when that dust settles, no one will give a rat's patoot whether Barry campaigned actively, passively, or not at all for the acceptance of his new  (very valuable!) information,  that Barry's name appeared on page 2 while Dave Wilton's was on page 1 (or vice versa),  or that Barry wasn't interviewed on the David Letterman show until the year 2015.  His achievement stands and is now finally recognized in Chicago thanks to Nathan Bierma's recent article.

   Btw, a compilation of Barry's information on "Windy City" is slated to appear in the December issue of Comments on Etymology. (It's currently in the proofreading stage). I'll let ads-l know when it comes out and--contrary to usual practice--I'll sell individual copies of the issue to anyone interested. I'll also send complimentary copies to the Chicago Public Library, the editor of the Encyclopedia of Chicago History, etc.-- IMHO (or IMHEO; E stands for Editorial),
Barry's compilation looks very impressive.

 Gerald Cohen