Tuna Melt (1968); The New Yorker on "The Big Apple"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Last week's New Yorker blithely noted that the "first expletive" in Bernard Kerik's autobiography, "Lost Son," "comes two words in."  You're supposed to interpret this fact as a further dollop pf shame.

But it's not true.  The expletive does appear two words into Chapter One, but there are
pages of prologue before that.

A minor point, certainly, but further reflection on journalistic accuracy none the less.

JL

Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Bapopik at AOL.COM
Subject: Tuna Melt (1968); The New Yorker on "The Big Apple"
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THE NEW YORKER ON "THE BIG APPLE"
...
Maybe in fifty years when most of us are dead, The New Yorker will actually
cover "the Big Apple." If there still is a The New Yorker or New York. About
THIRTEEN YEARS AGO, I walked into the place and asked to speak to someone, or
to address my work to someone. I said there was an upcoming "Big Apple"
dinner of the American Name Society, and people were still alive, and this was
something they had to do. I was told that's not how they do things. There was no
one I could speak to.
..
Charles Gillett died ten years ago. It's a great story now. It's amazing
that I'm still alive and doing parking tickets.
...
I need to repair my relationship with Grant Barrett and pay him to get the
1937 "Big Apple" dance song (which I now have rights to) on the website this
month. I sorry for what I said. (Talk about "third rail"!)
...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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MY COMPUTER
...
I now get some pop-ups that I had previously blocked. I checked my SPAM
folder today, and there was a rejected e-mail to this ADS-L listserv that I had
never sent. The subject was "important screensaver."
...
Maybe I should buy some firewall stuff and spyware stuff to clean everything
out. I don't know.
...
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TUNA MELT
...
Google Answers was asked about the origin of the "tuna melt." It's
interesting to see what GA came up with, without asking me or Ben Zimmer or Andy Smith.
...
Google Answers incorrectly, I believe, places "tuna melt" in the very first
JOY OF COOKING (the text changed many times). But hey, that's why they get
paid.
...
...
...
(GOOGLE ANSWERS)
...

_Google Answers: restaurant menus_
(http://www.answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=454182)
... I've since turned up a 1968 restaurant reference ... the mid-1960s there
was a tuna melt
sandwich on ... a drive-in restaurant called Pennington's, in Tulsa,
Oklahoma. ...
www.answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=454182 - 11k - _Cached_
(http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:DEbLIiPhm1EJ:www.answers.google.com/answers/threa
dview?id=454182+"tuna+melt"+1968+Oklahoma&hl=en&ie=UTF-8) - _Similar pages_
(http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=related:www.answers.google.c
om/answers/threadview?id=454182)

...
...
...
(PROQUEST HISTORICAL NEWSPAPERS)
...
_Display Ad 240 -- No Title_
(http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=9&did=513404422&SrchMode=1&sid=4&Fmt=10&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=HNP&TS=110577
6432&clientId=65882)
Los Angeles Times (1886-Current File). Los Angeles, Calif.: Oct 6, 1968. p.
WS12 (1 page) :
...
NORM'S PATTY MELT...79c
Our Own Original Patty Melt, with Cottage Cheese & Sliced Pineapple
...
TUNA MELT...79c
Served with Cottage Cheese & Sliced Pineapple
...
NORM'S SANTA MONICA--LINCOLN & COLORADO
...
...
...
(LOS ANGELES PUBLIC LIBRARY MENU COLLECTION)
...
_http://dbase1.lapl.org/images/menus/fullsize/j/rb03516-02.jpg_
(http://dbase1.lapl.org/images/menus/fullsize/j/rb03516-02.jpg)
...

"Melted Cheese Sandwich on Toast"

The Brown Derby Coffee Shop
September 1952
...
...
_http://dbase1.lapl.org/images/menus/fullsize/c/1477-inside1.jpg_
(http://dbase1.lapl.org/images/menus/fullsize/c/1477-inside1.jpg)
...

"PATTY MELT...95"
Tropicana Coffee Shop
Inglewood, CA
10/1968


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