megilla

[Jonathan Lighter]

>Am I missing a fourth contenduh?

Surely not the Big Easy.

JL

On Sun, Nov 7, 2010 at 9:02 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: megilla
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 9:05 AM -0500 11/7/10, Ben Zimmer wrote:
> >On Tue, Oct 26, 2010 at 12:21 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >>
> >>  Tony Harris on CNN: "This is just a *magilla* of a storm!  *There's* a
> word
> >>  a haven't used in a long time!"
> >>
> >>  250 RGs for "magilla of a."
> >>
> >>  I assume this has been influenced by "The Magilla Gorilla Show"
> >>  (1963-1967).  It's a gorilla of a storm. You know, a monster.
> >
> >Today's "Doonesbury" has Roland Hedley saying to a fictional Dubya,
> >"Mr. President, let's talk about the big magilla -- your decision to
> >invade Iraq."
> >
> >http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/archive/2010/11/07
> >
> >--bgz
> >
> Complete with the elegant verb "to hand-cherry-pick".
>
> I havethis picture of a triangular wrestling ring containing, one in
> each corner, the Big Kahuna, the Big Enchilada, and the Big Magilla,
> each dressed in his (or her?) traditional ethnic garb.   LH
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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