non-paternity event

[Wilson Gray]

Larry wrote,

"... fore-day ..."

Would you believe that I've seen that (mis)represented as "four-day"?
Of course, it may be that a creep is simply more time-consuming for an
infant.

-Wilson, who, like his late namesake, Wilson Pickett, can no longer brag:

"I'm a midnight creeper
"All-day sleeper"

P.S. Well, I'm still an all-day sleeper. -W.

On Sun, Feb 21, 2010 at 8:35 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: non-paternity event
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 8:25 PM -0500 2/21/10, George Thompson wrote:
>>"Midnight creep" wasn't a part of the idiom that
>>I learned at my mother's knee.  I know it, and
>>"'fore-day creep", from some old-time blues
>>records, I couldn't say which ones.  I would
>>interpret "midnight creep" as the act of
>>sneaking into an of-limits bed, and "'fore-day
>>creep" as the act of sneaking back out again.
>>But that's probably my rationalization rather
>>than traditional use.
>>
>>Why isn't this called a "non-connubial event"?
>>Paternity does occur, after all.
>>
>>GAT
>
> And according to my dialectological sources
> (although not my own childhood or parenthood
> memories), the results of all this paternity
> and/or non-paternity midnight creeping, at least
> in the northeast, is...more creeping.  Babies on
> this side of the relevant isogloss are reputed to
> "creep" rather than "crawl", at midnight,
> fore-day, and all times in between.
>
> LH
>
>>
>>George A. Thompson
>>Author of A Documentary History of "The African
>>Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but
>>nothing much lately.
>>
>>----- Original Message -----
>>From: Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>>Date: Sunday, February 21, 2010 2:55 pm
>>Subject: Re: non-paternity event
>>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>
>>>  George writes:
>>>
>>>  "... midnight creep ..."
>>>
>>>  Is that actually missing from HDAS? _Creep_ itself is there, though
>>>  missing a slightly different nuance from the one that I'm accustomed
>>>  to. I.e., one creeps _away_ from one's significant other and creeps
>>>  _to_ a potential new significant other or _to_ someone else's
>>>  significant other. One creeps _on_ one's significant other and creeps
>>>  back _in_ to one's own home after the assignation. That is, 'mongst me
>>>  and my handlers, there was always a sexual nuance.
>>>
>>>  You got me tossin' in my bed
>>>  Talkin' in my sleep
>>>  Now's the time
>>>  For our _midnight creep_
>>>
>>>  Good Lovin', performed by The Clovers, ca.1954 (off the top of my
>>>  head), composed by the late, great Ahmet Ertegün, under his nom de
>>>  boogie-joogie, "Nugetre."
>>>
>>>  -Wilson
>>>
>>>  On Sun, Feb 21, 2010 at 1:50 PM, George Thompson
>>>  <george.thompson at nyu.edu> wrote:
>>>  > ---------------------- Information from the
>>>mail header -----------------------
>>>  > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>  > Poster:       George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
>>>  > Subject:      non-paternity event
>>>  >
>>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>  >
>>>  > In an idle moment --  which I seem to have many of -- I was looking
>>>  at a recent issue of the New England Biographical and Genealogical
>>>  Register, specifically at an article attempting to sort out 3 guys
>>>  named Isaac Phelps, who were all running about Windsor, Conn. in the
>>>  early 1700s.  A part of the research involved a DNA test, I suppose of
>>>  several living men descended from the original American Phelps.
>>>  Regrettably, the DNA tests were inconsistent, a fact presented with
>>>  the remark that evidently "an early non-paternity event" had occurred.
>>>  > This was a new term to me, but I supposed it to be a genealogist's
>>>  euphemism for saying that somebody, sometime back when, had made that
>>>  midnight creep while somebody else was off to market to sell his pumpkins.
>>>  > It's also new to the OED.  I find that it seems to be entering
>>>  academic social science writing.
>>>  > Proquest show 7 occurrences beginning in 2000, the first 6 in
>>>  connection with genealogical research, but the latest from something
>>>  called Psychology & Psychiatry Journal, published in Atlanta, issue of
>>>  March 21, 2009. pg. 108
>>>  > "According to a study from Vienna, Austria, "Nonpaternity (i.e.,
>>>  discrepant biological versus social fatherhood) if affects many issues
>>>  of interests to psychologists, including familial dynamics,
>>>  interpersonal relationships, sexuality, and fertility, and therefore
>>>  represents an important topic for psychological research. The advent
>>>  of modern contraceptive methods, particularly the market launch of the
>>  > birth-control pill in the early 1960s and its increased use ever
>>>  since, should have affected rates of nonpaternity (i.e., discrepant
>>>  genetic and social fatherhood)."
>>>  >  (This is an oddly garbled article.  In addition to "if affects
>>>  many" in the passage quoted, there is "The eligible. database.
>>>  Comprised 32 published samples")
>>>  >
>>>  > I was of course shocked to think that Puritans might do that sort of
>>>  thing.  More to the point, some of my ancestors also roamed Windsor,
>>>  Conn. in the early 1700s.  Might one of my 128
>>>  great-great-great-great-great grandmothers have. . . ?   Surely not.
>>>  >
>>>  > GAT
>>>  >
>>>  > George A. Thompson
>>>  > Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre",
>>>  Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.
>>>  >
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>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>  --
>>>  -Wilson
>>>  ---
>>>  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.
>>>  -Mark Twain
>>>
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--
-Wilson
–––
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.
–Mark Twain

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