Pecos, Pecosin', Pecos Swap

[Jonathan Lighter]

Disney notwithstanding, "Pecos Bill" began his fictive life in 1923, the brainchild of Edward O'Reilly, who wrote "The Saga of Pecos Bill" for the _Century_ magazine.

  No dollar-a-day-and-found puncher ever told a Pecos Bill story in his life. Till after '23, that is.  And durned uncommonly then, either.

  JL

"James A. Landau" <JJJRLandau at NETSCAPE.COM> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "James A. Landau"
Subject: Re: Pecos, Pecosin', Pecos Swap
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I never heard of Pecos Pete, but there is a mythical character known as "Pecos Bill". I believe he appears in Louis Untermeyer's "The Wonderful Adventures of Paul Bunyan", my copy of which is currently hiding somewhere.

"Merino" is a breed of sheep, known for its high-quality wool. "Moreno" is a Spanish word meaning (adj) "brunette" and, according to my dictionary, in the New World it also means (noun) "a person of African ancestry".

I never heard "tall women and virgin pines", but there is an old Kentucky saying "Kentucky---land of beautiful horses and fast women".

- Jim Landau

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