Obama warns of the "old okey-doke"

[Laurence Horn]

At 11:14 AM -0500 1/24/08, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>At 1/24/2008 09:27 AM, Amy West wrote:
>>That sense is new to me, but that ain't saying much. I use
>>"okey-dokey" for "OK", and get some giggles when I do. I always learn
>>stuff here.
>
>I think I would get giggles if I said "okey-dokey" too.
>
>OED on-line (May 2004) has as its two earliest quotations for the
>"confidence trick" sense:
>1964 in R. D. Abrahams Deep down in Jungle v. 210 The reason why I
>took you for the okey-dok [sic], is because you was the sharpest
>nigger in town.
>1975 R. HILL O. J. Simpson 13, I put the 'okey-doke' on them.  [Of
>course we don't know from the OED who the speaker was!]
>
>But Eudora seems to be quite on the qui vive for something!  It warns
>me that this message "is likely to offend the average reader.  You
>might consider toning it down."  What could it possibly be alerting me about?
>
Check the Abrahams cite, toward the end.

LH

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