And in (additional) honor of the Giants' World Series win...

[Garson O'Toole]

Garson O'Toole wrote
[An excerpt from a 1954 October 1, New York Times, "'Chinese Homer': How It All
Began: Cartoonist Tad Credited as Coiner of Term"
>> in introducing the "Chinese homer" phrase he had no
>> thought of disparaging the Chinese people

Wilson Gray wrote:
> "Now, when *I* say 'nigger,' I don't mean it in no derogatory way."
> "Gin Rummy," the alpha whigger
> -The Boondocks comic strip on line
>
> For one who is a member of the set of which a derogatory term obtains,
> there is no use of that term that is felt as "having no thought of
> disparaging" or as "not meant in no derogatory way." ...

Thanks for your response Wilson. You made several valuable points. I
should make it clear to anyone who is jumping into the archives and
does not see the removed context that the words you were responding to
were not my words. They were written by a journalist in 1954 for the
New York Times. The journalist was speculating about the psychological
state of Thomas Aloysius (Tad) Dorgan, but the underlying premise of
the speculation appears to be flawed.

The journalist was assuming that Tad Dorgan was the coiner of the term
"Chinese homer". But at this time I have not seen any direct evidence
that Tad Dorgan had anything to do with creating the term. Further,
there is evidence that the linkage of Tad Dorgan with the origin of
"hot dog" was flawed. "Hot dog" was one of many terms that are
credited to Dorgan in the 1954 New York Times article.

I included the excerpt from the 1954 article because it said "Dorgan
had two adopted sons of Chinese ancestry." I thought this provided
some evidence that Dorgan probably did not coin the term.

Garson

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