Counting only to two

Joel S. Berson Berson at ATT.NET
Thu Apr 19 11:35:49 UTC 2007


At 4/18/2007 08:33 PM, Wilson wrote:
>You left out the funny part of that story, Joel. ;-)

What part did I leave out?  I didn't see it below  :-)

Joel

>As for Gypsies, they've been making a good living off the colored for
>dekkids. As the saying goes, "When you find a good horse, ride it to
>death." Gypsy fortune-tellers are mentioned in any number of blues and
>rhythm-&-blues songs. Gypsies posing as Native Americans collecting
>money for rehabbing the educatonal facillities of reservations once
>conned me and some friends out of money. The story in the local paper
>warning that Gypsies running this game had hit town came too late to
>save us. But, at least I was able to recognize this particular con,
>the second time that I came across it. The Gypsies hadn't changed the
>game at all, another way of riding a good horse to death. The only
>thing different was the location. They succeeded in conning me in
>Porter Square in Cambridge.
>When they hit on me again in Boston''s
>Downtown Crossing about twenty years later, I knew better than to go
>for the okey-doke.
>
>-Wilson
>
>-Wilson
>
>On 4/18/07, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>>Subject:      Re: Counting only to two
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>And then there is the tale of the two Romanian noblemen (as told by
>>either Victor Borge or Theodore Bikel) who had a contest -- who could
>>name the larger number.
>>
>>The first thought for a moment, and said "two".
>>
>>The second thought for a while longer, and then said "I give up."
>>
>>(This probably immediately preceded, or followed, the slur that a
>>gypsy would sell you his mother, but a Romanian gypsy would deliver.)
>>
>>Joel

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