gin game

[Baker, John]

        I have contacted Daniella Romano, Director of the Brooklyn Navy
Yard Archive, and she has been kind enough to provide me with scans of
the card, which I will be happy to forward to any list members who
request, either via the list or by private email.

        While I am not by any means a qualified professional, and I have
no other samples of the correspondent's writing, I think the word
originally identified as "gin" clearly starts with the letter g,
eliminating "con game" as a possibility.  However, I am far less sure of
the other letters.


John Baker



-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Jonathan Lighter
Sent: Friday, January 08, 2010 6:33 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: gin game

I think it does seem unlikely, because

1. after the passage of a hundred years no repetition of the usage seems
to
have been noticed.

2. "con game" was in wide use in 1909

3. with connotations of deception and cheatery that "gin game" usually
lacks.

Only a painstaking comparison, by qualified professionals, of the
handwriting on the card against known samples of the correspondent's
writing
of both "gin game" and "con game" is likely to resolve the issue, which
is a
way of saying that I'm sticking with "con game.".

JL

On Fri, Jan 8, 2010 at 6:16 PM, Baker, John <JMB at stradley.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Baker, John" <JMB at STRADLEY.COM>
> Subject:      Re: gin game
>
>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------
>
>        "Gin game" seems to have been a fairly common way to refer to a
> game of gin rummy, even before the play of that name debuted in 1976,
> and many of the references are to games with money stakes.  An
extended
> use does not seem too unlikely.
>
>
> John Baker
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
Behalf
> Of George Thompson
> Sent: Friday, January 08, 2010 6:05 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: gin game
>
> A good thought.
>
> GAT
>
> George A. Thompson
> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
> Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> Date: Friday, January 8, 2010 5:54 pm
> Subject: Re: gin game
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
> > If the handwriting is scrawly enough, it may be "con game," which
> > sounds a
> > little weird in the context now but I think didn't in 1909.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Fri, Jan 8, 2010 at 4:51 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:      gin game
> > >
> > >
>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -------
> > >
> > > From an article in today's NYTimes, section C, p. 33, headlined
> > "Navy Yard
> > > 'Treasures'", about an archive and museum at the (former) Brooklyn
> Navy
> > > Yard.
> > >
> > > "The archive has also received a 1909 postcard showing the yard
> paymaster's
> > > house; on the back an enraged shipyard worker scrawled to his
> girlfriend,
> > > "What kind of a gin game you giving me, taking me for a damn
fool?""
> > >
> > > not in HDAS; app. not in OED; not in Chambers Slang Dictionary.
> > >
> > > 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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