commenter vs. commentator

[Bruce Hunter]

I thought it worked like this---
You buy a cluster of French Fries from a fast food chain. One of them
always sticks up farther than the rest. That's the potentator. The rest
are all commontators.
Ducking and burrowing back into the woodwork,
Bruce Hunter

Wilson Gray wrote:
> Daughter potato of wealth & privilege:
>
> "Father! I'm getting married. Edward has finally proposed!"
>
> Father potato of wealth & privilegrbackground:
>
> "To which Edward do you refer?"
>
> Daughter potato:
>
> "You know who he is, father! Edward R. Murrow!"
>
> Father:
>
> "Absolutely *not*!"
>
> Daughter:
>
> "But, father! Why not?!"
>
> Father:
>
> "He's a commentator."
>
>
> Considered very funny when I was a teen-ager, in the 'Fifties.
>
> -Wilson
>

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