"86" and Route 86 (folk etymology)

[Wilson Gray]

On May 2, 2005, at 12:11 AM, bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       bapopik at AOL.COM
> Subject:      "86" and Route 86 (folk etymology)
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> I ate Sunday at Mustang Sally's (est. 1993). It's on Seventh Avenue in
> the 30s, near Madison Square Garden. It has the same owner as Mustarng
> Harry's a block or two away. The name comes from a song in THE
> COMMITMENTS.

The song, "Mustang Sally," is a *lot* older than the movie, THE
COMMITMENTS. Of course, this fact doesn't obviate the implied claim
that there exist people who know the song only from the movie.

-Wilson Gray

> ...
> It's good pub food. There were many big tv screens to watch my NJ Nets
> get killed.
> ...
> I asked several people if there was any slang, maybe in food service
> or associated with the Garden. Of course, I got nothing. I mentioned
> "86." They'd heard of that.
> ...
> The bartender volunteered that it came from "Route 86," which couldn't
> be completed in the Rocky Mountains, so "86" was anything that wasn't
> available.
> ...
> Of course, I'd found "86" in the early 1930s, and there wasn't even a
> Route 86, AFAIK. But add another one to the books.
>