"Kumbaya" in Dallas Morning News

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

     I suppose the central question is which public figure first used "Kumbaya" in its ironic/derogatory sense and who therefore  inspired numerous imitators?  Let's rule out politicians, whose sense of humor (at least publicly) tends to be mediocre. How about one of TV's conservative + acerbic figures--say, PC detractors Bill Maher or Rush Limbaugh?  Or maybe just acerbic would do, say,  James Carville. 
 
         It's too late to help Mr. Weiss with his newspaper article. but perhaps with a bit of looking we can turn up the answer anyway.
 
Gerald Cohen

________________________________

From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Benjamin Zimmer
Sent: Sat 11/11/2006 12:47 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: "Kumbaya" in Dallas Morning News



A query from a Dallas Morning News reporter about "Kumbaya" was posted here
a while back. Here's the article he wrote:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/religion/stories/DN-kumbaya_11rel.ART0.State.Edition1.3e6da2d.html


--Ben Zimmer

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