Hitchcock's McGuffin story possibly derived from a story about an imaginary mongoose

[Dan Goncharoff]

Why assume McGuffin applies to gifts given during the Xmas season??

DanG
On Oct 27, 2010 10:23 PM, "Garson O'Toole" <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>
wrote:
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> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Re: Hitchcock's McGuffin story possibly derived from a story
> about an imaginary mongoose
>
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>
> Jonathan Lighter wrote
>> Surely "McGuffin" never really "meant" a "gift not to be opened till
>> Christmas" to any statistically significant number of people.
>
> The definition of McGuffin provided by Robert Haven Schauffler seems
> odd to me. In my cultural experience as a child and as an adult gift
> giver almost all gifts during the Christmas season were supposed to be
> opened on Christmas day. Thus almost all gifts would be labeled
> McGuffin's. Using a distinctive sounding appellation to designate a
> gift opened according to a commonplace protocol might be an impediment
> to adoption.
>
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