Vals Kilmer (like "attorneys general"?)

[Jonathan Lighter]

For me, it's more like meeting an old friend who's gone tragically insane.

  Since when does "Kilmer" modify "Val" ?  Savvy pluralizers realize it's the other way around. Of course nowadays, when anchorclones address everybody but heads of state by hizzahur first name, I suppose one could get the opposite impression.

  (Sometimes they'll use a title with a given name or hypocoristic form. Coming at some point : "So, King Charlie, how does it feel to be on the throne ?"  You read it here first.)

  JL

Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: Vals Kilmer (like "attorneys general"?)
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That's probably because you're too young to have been taught this as a
prescriptive norrn. For me, "Vals Kilmer" is like unexpectedly running
across an old friend that I hadn't seen in such a long time that I thought
that he was dead.

-Wilson

On 3/26/06, Bapopik at aol.com wrote:
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Bapopik at AOL.COM
> Subject: Vals Kilmer (like "attorneys general"?)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
------
>
> This doesn't sound right.
> ...
> ...
> =3D20
>
> _http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2006/03/25/val_kilmers_hea.php#comment=
s_=3D20
> (
> http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2006/03/25/val_kilmers_hea.php#comments=
)=3D20
> =3D20
> Astute streetart fans have noticed an increasing prevalence of Val Kilmer
> =3D20
> heads on the streets of New York. We naturally assumed that some demented
> VK=3D
> fan=3D20
> was putting out a desperate cry for help, but _Fox News has
> put together=3D20
> some other theories_ (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,188942,00.html)
> :=3D20
> When the Vals first popped up, conspiracy theorists (who are in
> no short=3D20
> supply in New York) immediately began guessing who the perpetrator
> of the=3D20
> postings might be =3DE2=3D80=3D94 and why in the world they would do it. =
Some
> sugg=3D
> ested a=3D20
> corporate marketing ploy, others an obscure band trying to get its name
> out.=3D
> =3D20
> Some were certain that it was the actor himself trying to get back into
> the=3D20=3D
> =3D20
> spotlight.=3D20
> "Val is against the defacement of any public property," said his publicis=
t
> =3D20
> Michael Yanni, adding that while Kilmer won't comment directly on the
> peculi=3D
> ar =3D20
> postings, he is aware of them and "definitely intrigued. He is
> wondering=3D20
> about the why and who of it all."
> We learned two things from this story: 1) the plural of Val Kilmer is Val=
s
> =3D20
> Kilmer (like "attorneys general"), and 2) Fox News is really having a slo=
w
> n=3D
> ews=3D20
> week. [Related: we've been tracking the Vals for _quite some time_=3D20
> (http://www.flickr.com/photos/bluejake/tags/valkilmer/) .]Posted by _Jake
> Do=3D
> bkin_=3D20
> (http://www.gothamist.com/staff.php#jake) in _Art_=3D20
> (http://www.gothamist.com/archives/arts_and_events/art/) |=3D20
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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