ranchburger, Big Onion antedating (sort of), eggcorns

[JAMES A. LANDAU Netscape. Just the Net You Need.]

On Sun, 11 Nov 2007 14:18:31 Barry Popik <bapopik at GMAIL.COM>
wrote on the subject of Ranch Dressing

"Also of interest is the "ranch burger," inspired nowadays by the
"ranch" name. "

It is of no great etymological importance, but back in the carhop era in Louisville Ky there was a local restaurant chain known as the "Ranch House" whose signature item was the "ranchburger", somewhat similar to the Big Mac or the Big Boy.





On Sunday 11 Nov 2007 14:29:00 -0500  Doug Harris <cats22 at FRONTIERNET.NET> added to ADS's eggcorn collection with "And it might be a good idea to amend that definition to add something like the phrase ". . . but has no ingredient from a type agricultural facility fitting the traditional definition of a ranch -- i.e. a place where lifestock, as opposed to plants, are the main business."




And also the eggcorn database might be interested in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, which city is, so I am told, named after the mussels that grow on the shoals in the Tennessee River.



On  Sun, 11 Nov 2007 19:34:00  "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" gcohen at UMR.EDU wrote

"After my posting on "Big Onion" yesterday (Saturday) I belatedly
checked an obvious source, namely Barry Popik's excellent website
(barrypopik.com), and below my signoff I present his entry on "Big
Onion." The entry clarifies that "Big Onion" (NYC) was almost
non-existent  prior to the 1991 "Big Onion" Walking Tours and even
afterwards never caught on.  Everything about Cassidy's treatment of
this term points either to breathtaking scholarly sloppiness or to a
hoax."

Louis Untermeyer  The Wonderful Adventures of Paul Bunyan  New York:The Heritage Press, 1945 pages 58-60 tells about Paul Bunyan's and Hot Biscuit Slim's discovery of the Big Onion River.

                         James A. Landau
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