incongruity was Re: Judas H. Priest

[Amy West]

On incongruity, I noticed "loser" used in "Santa Claus Is Coming to
Town" (1970 if I read the Roman numeral date correctly". The Winter
Warlock says -- "I still had some magic in me. I guess I'm not a
loser after all."

I know that I've seen this year after year, but that's the first time
I noticed "loser."

---Amy West

>Date:    Tue, 19 Dec 2006 09:48:52 -0600
>From:    "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
>Subject: Judas H. Priest
>
>I was watching Sunset Boulevard the other night, and the subject phrase
>popped out of Jack Webb.  I believe Barry Popik has pushed this back to
>the 1800's, so this isn't an antedating, but it was sort of incongruous.
>My mental image of Webb is Joe Friday, who is one squared-away dude.
>But Webb does have a background in Jazz (he was married to Julie London
>for  a while), so maybe his character in SB is more true to life.

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