antedating (?) "Katy, bar the door" (1890)

[Wilson Gray]

So, that "explanation" was most likely pulled out of his PR man's ass
and I fell for it. Played like a piano.

-Wilson

On 10/11/07, Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: antedating (?) "Katy, bar the door" (1890)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On 10/11/07, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Speaking of "fiddy," have you read that the rapper, Curtis Jackson,
> > when asked why it is that he uses the nom-de-hiphop, "50 Cent,"
> > replied that his stage name represents change.
>
> Well, that's more pleasant than his other explanation, which is that
> it's an homage to the notorious triggerman Kelvin "50 Cent" Martin...
>
> -----
> http://www.stuffmagazine.com/articles/index.aspx?id=1112
> Nobody, including family and friends, seems to know exactly how Martin
> acquired the name 50 Cent. Some say he earned it in a dice game, after
> he walked away with a cool $500 after an initial wager of 50 cents.
> Others suspect it was because of his five-foot-three, 120-pound frame.
> "He was a short guy," says 50's former criminal cohort One Arm Monk,
> who fenced all the bling 50 stole. "He was little."
> [...]
> The pitiless mastermind of countless homicides, 50 Cent's reputation
> far outweighed the money he made, and his legacy lives on through
> folklore as well as through the music and imagery of Curtis "50 Cent"
> Jackson. "I took the name 50 Cent because it says everything I want it
> to say. I'm the same kind of person 50 Cent was. I provide for myself
> by any means," says Jackson.
> -----
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
                                              -Sam'l Clemens

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