Paternity in the good old days

[Wilson Gray]

Geez, Larry! You're the punster laureate and you *missed* that one?!!!

=Wilson

On Fri, Jul 23, 2010 at 8:03 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Paternity in the good old days
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 7:20 PM -0400 7/23/10, Wilson Gray wrote:
>>"The only father" lacks the color of "the baby daddy."
>>
>>-Wilson
>
> Yeah; I suppose it's short for something like "the only viable father."
> candidate".
>
> LH
>
>>
>>On Fri, Jul 23, 2010 at 11:52 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
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>>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>  Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>>>  Subject:      Paternity in the good old days
>>>
>>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>>  In 1686, a Colony of Plymouth court charged a man "to be the only
>>>  father of the said [bastard] child."  In another case, the mother
>>>  claimed that a particular male was "the only father".
>>>
>>>  Joel
>>>
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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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