Black-and-White, Half-Moon, Harlequin

[Laurence Horn]

At 6:02 PM -0400 9/5/04, Wilson Gray wrote:
>On Sep 5, 2004, at 12:56 PM, Sam Clements wrote:
>
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       Sam Clements <SClements at NEO.RR.COM>
>>Subject:      Re: Black-and-White, Half-Moon, Harlequin
>>-----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>--------
>>
>>Most cites I can find from the 1940-49 period say the NY police cars
>>were
>>simply green and white.
>>
>>SC
>
>Larry probably had Left-Coast police cars in mind. And, of course, in
>the old B&W gangster movies, even NYC police cars appear to be black
>and white.
>
>-Wilson Gray

Well, maybe, but I did take the trouble to check my recollection and
found inter alia
========
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_and_white
In New York City, a Black-and-White used to be a police car, when
they were painted with a distinctive black and white livery.
Currently a Black-and-White is a large round sugar cookie (even 5
inches across) with a divided sugar and chocolate glaze.
========

But other web sites (e.g. http://tnmcc.com/police.html, which offers
a more detailed history of NYC police car color combos) bear out the
observations of Jonathan and Sam, so I'll withdraw the claim, in
anticipation of Wikipedia's following suit.

>
>>----- Original Message -----
>>From: "Jonathan Lighter" <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
>>To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Sent: Sunday, September 05, 2004 11:41 AM
>>Subject: Re: Black-and-White, Half-Moon, Harlequin
>>
>>>NYC police cars these days are sky-blue and white. In the forties and
>>fifties (and perhaps from the beginning)  they were dark green, black,
>>and
>>white.  So far as I know, they were never referred to as "black and
>>whites."
>>>
>>>JL
>>>
>>>Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
>>>---------------------- Information from the mail
>>header -----------------------
>>>Sender: American Dialect Society
>>>Poster: Laurence Horn
>>>Subject: Re: Black-and-White, Half-Moon, Harlequin
>>>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>----
>>-----
>>>
>>>At 11:41 AM -0700 9/4/04, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>>>I can remember eating these cookies in NYC in the mid-'50s. They
>>>>were called "black-and-whites" then. Another kind of
>>>>"black-and-white" was a chocolate soda with vanilla ice cream.
>>>>
>>>>JL
>>>
>>>and ideally one was not trying to eat the former or drink the latter
>>>while sitting cuffed in the back of the third kind of
>>>"black-and-white".
>>>
>>>Larry
>>>