Alan Dundes (70), Frank Perdue (84) obituaries today

[Laurence Horn]

At 1:36 AM -0500 4/2/05, bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:
>ALAN DUNDES
>...
>http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/02/obituaries/02dundes.html
>...
>I thought he was much older than 70...I've been looking at much of
>his work. He contributed a bad essay on "86" to American Speech
>somewhat recently, but that's the least of his many contributions to
>American folklore.
>...
>...

On the positive side, last May he sent me a very gracious, if
idiosyncratically written, e-mail in response to the copy I had sent
him of my "Spitten Image" paper from AS (2004) that cited his 1991
lecture on the William Tell apple-shot.  (Dundes's reference in that
lecture to "the symbolic equivalence of saliva and semen" anticipated
my analysis of the expression.)  In his e-note to me, he pointed out
that what I was calling an ironym (i.e. a national or ethnic slur
like "Welsh rabbit") has long been discussed by folklorists under the
rubric of "blason populaire".  He proposed getting together for a
chat during his 50th class reunion at Yale this coming June, which I
was looking forward to.  Alas.

Larry

P.S.  There was a very nice piece on both Dundes and Gershon Legman
by Jim Holt in last year's (April or May 2004) Spring Humor issue.