"Sock It to Me"

[Jonathan Lighter]

FWIW, "lynching" has never been restricted to hanging, though in modern usage that does seem to be the usual connotation.  Undoubtedly it's been influenced by innumerable movie lynchings of hoss and cattle thieves who are uniformly hanged by vigilantes.

JL

Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Laurence Horn
Subject: Re: "Sock It to Me"
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At 3:03 AM -0400 6/5/05, Sam Clements wrote:
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Wilson Gray"
>To:
>Sent: Sunday, June 05, 2005 1:03 AM
>Subject: Re: "Sock It to Me"
>
>
>
>
>>Jesus! - you should pardon the expression - how long have you been
>>living in this country, Ben? Are you really so unaware of the way that
>>things were and are? Don't you recall that, in the _'Sixties,_ the
>>lynching of blacks and even of some Jews was still a commonplace
>>practice?
>>-Wilson
>
>Assuming you're referring to Goodman and Schwermer, I'd hardly call lynching
>of Jews in the Sixties a "commonplace practice."
>
And technically, IIRC, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner (along
with James Chaney, who was of course black and not a Jew) were not
lynched, nor was Violet Liuzzo (who was neither, but another murdered
civil rights volunteer), although other whites working alongside
blacks during those years may well have been murdered by lynching (as
opposed to shooting, stabbing, burning, etc.) during the era of
voting registrations drives and freedom riding. I can't recall
hearing about any whites (Jewish or not) who were, though.

Larry

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