"blue laws", 1755

[Laurence Horn]

All I want to know is: does this mean I have to vote for Tea Party
candidates if I want to be able to buy liquor on Sundays in New Haven?

LH

At 4:41 PM -0400 9/28/10, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>Changed to ' where the writer imagines a future newspaper praising
>the revival of "our [ Connecticut ] old Blue Laws." '.
>
>Joel
>
>At 9/28/2010 12:15 PM, Shapiro, Fred wrote:
>>Joel,
>>
>>In the Wikipedia entry you refer to "since the American Revolution,"
>>but in 1755 there had been no American Revolution.  The 1755 source
>>uses "Revolution" to refer to some imaginary British revolution, not
>>the real American Revolution of 1775.
>>
>>Fred Shapiro
>>
>>
>>________________________________________
>>From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
>>Joel S. Berson [Berson at ATT.NET]
>>Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 2010 11:25 AM
>>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>Subject: Re: "blue laws", 1755
>>
>>1)  I have modified the "History" section of the Wikipedia article
>>"Blue Law," adding the 1755 appearance and amending the overly
>>limited description of the early Puritan laws (they prohibited not
>>only business activities but also recreation).
>>
>>If someone  would tell me how to enter [[[Connecticut]]] so that the
>>word Connecticut ends up as a link enclosed in a single pair of
>>square brackets, I would be grateful!  At the moment I write this my
>>coding has put extraneous spaces surrounding it.
>>
>>2)  What is the best hunch today for to the origin of "blue
>>laws"?  Has anyone associated "blue laws" with blue, adj., "being
>>"dismayed, perturbed, discomfited; depressed, miserable,
>>low-spirited"?  As in one might find in a sentence suitable for The
>>25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee: "I doubt not that I wore my
>>sadd-coloured cloaths for the Sabbath last Saturday ev'nin' because I
>>was so sad and blue thinking about our blue laws"?  ("Blue" in this
>>sense goes back to a1550, 1682, and 1783.)
>>
>>Joel
>>
>>At 9/24/2010 10:36 PM, Shapiro, Fred wrote:
>>>As far as I know, that 1755 citation is the earliest known.
>>
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