"Hispanic or Mexican"; Balderdash & Piffle

[Shapiro, Fred]

Apparently the Wordhunt people only gave credit to discoverers who directly contributed the information to them.  This may indeed be the sensible way for them to proceed.  Note, however, the following e-mail that I had sent them:

Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2007 21:59:08 -0500 (EST)
From: Fred Shapiro <shapiro at pantheon.yale.edu>
To: balderdash at bbc.co.uk
Subject: Antedating of "Bloody Mary"

Barry Popik discovered much earlier evidence five years ago:

> From "This New York" by Lucius Beebe, NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE, 2 December
1939, pg. 9, col. 2:

   George Jessel's newest pick-me-up which is receiving attention from the
town's paragraphers is called a Bloody Mary: half tomato juice, half vodka.

Fred Shapiro


________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Barry Popik [bapopik at GMAIL.COM]
Sent: Friday, October 19, 2007 9:46 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: "Hispanic or Mexican"; Balderdash & Piffle

HISPANIC OR MEXICAN
...
The wife and I visited a medical office recently and filled out some
detailed forms. One asked "Hispanic or Mexican." My wife wondered why
it wasn't just "Hispanic," but I guess this is Texas.
...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BALDERDASH & PIFFLE (continued)
...
I meant Britain's strict libel & copyright laws. The BBC is usually
very careful about them.
...
The whole thing is ridiculous. I've never seen the show so I don't
know how things were presented, but B&P was produced with the help of
the OED. My "Bloody Mary" finding was published in 2001--six years
ago. OED should have had it in its files. The old 1950s "Bloody Mary"
date shouldn't even have made the OED appeals list. Eleven people got
credit for "discovering" my work that was already known to OED.
...
OED could help give a volunteer researcher just a little bit of credit
here, but it didn't.

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