off the wall

[Wilson Gray]

On Jun 3, 2004, at 7:56 AM, Mark A. Mandel wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mark A. Mandel" <mamandel at LDC.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: off the wall
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> Wilson Gray <hwgray at EARTHLINK.NET> replies to my comment:
>
>>>
> Had I been able to predict the kind of response that my message would
> elicit from you, I would have made a greater effort to clarify my
> remarks. Unfortunately, I could not. Therefore, I ask only that you
> accept my sincerest apologies. I regret the error.
>         <<
>
> Accepted, sir. <bow>
>
>>>
> On the other hand, I found your remarks re telephony quite informative.
>         <<
>
> I'm glad they were helpful.
>
> May I make a suggestion for your future reference? Given your quite
> reasonable doubts about white people's familiarity with Black culture,
> I
> found it not entirely consistent that you assumed that all the readers
> of
> this list would be familiar with a hip-hop movie.
>
> -- Mark A. Mandel, Research Administrator
>    Information Extraction from the Biomedical Literature
>    University of Pennsylvania
>

Well, uh, actually, my underlying assumption re the movie, "I Got The
Hook-Up," was exactly the opposite: that no one here would be familiar
with it, given that the movie was made by blacks for blacks to suit
black taste. (The preceding puns on a radio advertisement from my
childhood, ca.1941: "Made by Americans for Americans to suit  American
taste! L.S.[pause]M.F.T.! Lucky Strike MEANS 'fine tobacco!'" [tobacco
auctioneer's chant ending with the phrase, "Sold, American!"]  A joke
of the day was that the Feds were investigating Lucky Strike because
they had heard that the company sold Americans. "American," in this
case, actually referred to the American Tobacco Co,)
I can only once again beg your indulgence, regarding the lack of
clarity in my postings.

-Wilson Gray