"Do-rag" - no mention of ADS antedatings

[bapopik at AOL.COM]

William Safire returned to "do-rag" on Sunday. There is no mention of the discussion and antedatings here. So it remains for his readers, I guess, a term that was coined in The New York Times.

And so it goes, as it has been for twelve years. No corrections. No apologies.

What a son of a bitch!


(NEW YORK TIMES)
DOING THE DO-RAG RAG
My recent definition of do-rag as ''a scrap of material worn atop a hairdo'' has been challenged. A dozen or so readers are certain it should be spelled dew-rag, derived from the headband worn to absorb the perspiration, similar to dew, on the brow of workers in the sun.
On the other hand, Anna Grimes Noser of Nashville holds that ''a do-rag is whatever is available to pull your hair out of your face so you can set about cleaning the house, garage, gutters or other messy tasks. To indirectly criticize and simultaneously empathize with someone, many Southerners will quip, 'Bless his heart.' Mr. Safire, bless your heart.''
Michael Parker of the Corcoran Library in Washington, writing ''as a black man growing up in the 50's and 60's,'' observes that ''a do-rag was usually worn by men who had their hair 'processed.' The do-rag kept the 'process' neat until it was time to step out. We usually made fun of men with do-rags. Today I keep my mouth shut!''
Other Lexicographic Irregulars lent support to my speculation about the hyphenated noun's origin. ''Originally, a do-rag protected one's conk (straightened hair) while one slept,'' noted Rebecca Maksel. And at Washington's Gridiron Dinner a couple of weeks ago, as I stood amid a bunch of other moving shakers in white tie and tails, Colin Powell -- proud product, like me, of the Bronx -- agreed that do-rag did derive from ''doing'' one's hair. He even recalled that ''in the days before pantyhose,'' a variation of the do-rag was a stocking pulled down over the head. Ain't etymology grand?