"The Big Apple" (was: Beducator; Panissa)

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

Barry,
Whazzup? Your website mentions that I did write the letter to Tulsa, although I never received a reply. No problem. For us the subject is important but for the journalists there it's obviously less so. I shall lose zero amount of sleep over their lack of attention.

  Btw--for ads-l-- my main interest in "The Big Apple" now is the preparation of a revised edition of my 1991 monograph--this time with Barry listed as author and incorporating his extraordinary research on the subject. That will have to come in 2006 though. For the upcoming summer I'll try to prepare vol. 7 of _Studies in Slang_, co-authored with Barry as was volume 6.

Gerald Cohen

> ----------
> From:         American Dialect Society on behalf of bapopik at AOL.COM
> Sent:         Thursday, April 14, 2005 7:06
> Subject:           Beducator; Panissa
        <snip>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> OT: ADD PHOTOS? I MADE $100 ELEVEN YEARS AGO. ANYTHING ELSE YA WANT?
> ...
> Photos. Anything else I can give out for free?...I had asked Gerald Cohen to write to the Tulsa World. I guess he can't write letters, either? It's his personality? If he would have been a history professor, this all would have been resolved by now?
> ...
> ...
> (April 13, 2005)
> http://batesline.com/
> Read delicious
> Searching for blog references to Tulsa, I came across a website called The Big Apple, the core mission (sorry) of which is to provide extensive explanation and evidence for the origins of that fruity phrase, perhaps the best-known nickname for New York City. I'll give you a clue -- it has to do with horseracing. Another clue -- it has nothing to do with "road apples."
> The site also features the origins of other city and state nicknames like "the Show-Me State," "the Big Easy," and "the Garden State."
> Beyond the nicknames, there's a wealth of New York trivia about buildings, businesses (and their slogans), food and drink, songs, phrases, streets, neighborhoods, and sports teams. Most of the entries feature newspaper or magazine citations, trying to track down the earliest published reference to a name or phrase.
> It's a fascinating site, but not very visual. If it's New York City photographs and history you want -- and plenty of both -- you need to visit Kevin Walsh's Forgotten NY.
> (Oh, the Tulsa reference? It was a letter to the editor in the March 4, 2005, Tulsa Whirled, perpetuating a myth about the name's origin. A letter correcting the myth was sent to the Whirled, but never published.)
> Posted by Michael at 12:35 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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