gatecrashergate & balloon boy

[Joel S. Berson]

The Washington Times and Jon Stewart are both
late.  The New York Times wrote on November
26.  "The stunt brought to mind another set of
fame-seekers: the Heene family of Fort Collins,
Colo., who mesmerized the nation for several
hours last month after setting aloft a homemade
saucer-shaped balloon — and the notion that their
6-year-old son was in it — in an apparent effort
to gain attention from television producers."

Now viewable at
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/27/us/politics/27party.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=salahi%20balloon&st=cse,
or in their archives searching for Salahi + balloon.

(The Washington Times seems to have made the
connection on Dec. 2.  Perhaps they took a long Thanksgiving recess.)

Joel

At 12/3/2009 03:03 PM, Charles Doyle wrote:
>Jon Stewart also drew the connection between the Salahis and
>the Balloon Boy--either 2 or 3 nights ago, I'm reasonably sure.
>
>--Charlie
>
>
>
>---- Original message ----
> >Date: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 14:52:31 -0500
> >From: American Dialect Society
> <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> (on behalf of victor steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>)
> >Subject: gatecrashergate>
> >Just a follow up on -gates and -ers:
> >
> >If Google News is correct in its timestamps,
> the first occurrence of Gatecrashergate was in
> Politico in a Glenn Thrush blog post about Rep.
> King (R-Arkham) demanding an investigation. But
> WaTimes also had a story with "Gatecrashergate"
> in quotation marks roughly at the same time
> (although the "latest version"is now dated a
> day later, Dec 1). And several sources flubbed
> an AP headline as "Gatecrasher Gate" [sic] on
> Monday, while WaPo put in a paranthetical
> question with quotation marks-- ("Gatecrasher-gate"?) [sic] --also on Dec 1.
> >
> >So there are several -gates and no -ers
> circulating in Washington, at the moment. Only
> the WaTimes drew a connection between the
> Salahis and the Balloon Boy, although the
> cultural link should have been obvious from the moment the story broke.
> >
> >VS-)
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org