Let us know when you change the topic?

RonButters at AOL.COM RonButters at AOL.COM
Fri Apr 14 00:25:07 UTC 2006


Could I suggest that when people wander from one topic to another they please 
change the subject heading? I've just opened ten e-mails with a subject line 
that says, "Re: Re: 'Nigga' untrademarkable?," and they have nothing to do 
with the topic at hand (which interests me greatly) but instead expound upon 
topics that have NOTHING WHATEVER to do with either "Nigga" or "unrtrademarkable."

> On Mar 18, 2006, at 2:17 PM, Alison Murie wrote:
> 
> >>> I think it was Bob Dole who started this small-d democrat.
> >>
> >> Even if it was (as it appears) around before him, Dole did a lot for
> >> the usage, especially in his hatchet service as vice-presidential
> >> candidate when he railed about WWII, the Korean War, and the Vietnam
> >> conflict as "Democrat wars".
> >>
> >> L
> >  ~~~~~~~~
> > FWIW, my  feeling about this use of "Democrat"  where "Democratic"
> > would be
> > expected was meant to  suggest that "democratic" was unearned &
> > therefore
> > should be denied by right-thinking Republicans.  My impression is
> > that it
> > goes back farther than Dole, but I can't pin down my first
> > awareness of it.
> 
> i recalled widespread use by Republicans in the 50s and 60s, and
> geoff nunberg on Language Log ("Making the world safe from
> 'democracy'", 10/16/04) confirms this:
> 
>    http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001565.html
> 
> (and takes things back another half-century, roughly.)
> 
> ah, Recency!
> 
> arnold, wondering if he can book the Recency Suite at the next LSA
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> 
> 

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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