Is this correct for anyone?

[Wilson Gray]

>From the Wikipedia article on "_Gas works_ referred from _gashouse_":

"_Coal gas (known in the USA as Town gas) ..._"


Say what? I've always known coal gas only as "coal gas" since I took a
class known as "georgaphy" [,dZi 'arg at fI] in the 4th grade, 1946-47.
Until I read W-pedia's article, I'd never before come across the
phrase, "town gas," ever, in any context. But, keeping in mind that
white people, growing up in a different environment, know stuff that
even supposedly-educated black people have no concept of, I've decided
to ask. Is it just me? *Is* coal gas normally referred to as "town
gas" in The World?

And BTW, WTF *is* a "gashouse," anyway? Needless to say, having grown
up in Saint Louis, I'm familiar with the phrase, Gashouse Gang. But no
one ever pointed anything out to me and said, "That's a / the
gashouse" or "That's where the famous gashouse used to be." Given the
presence of capitalization, I assume that Gashouse is or was the name
of a 'hood in The City wherein stands or once stood a gashouse.
W-pedia says _gas house_[sic] is another way of saying "gas works."


-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

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org