"notorious" goes neutral

[Jonathan Lighter]

Absolutely.

JL

On Sun, Aug 7, 2011 at 8:30 AM, David A. Daniel <dad at pokerwiz.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "David A. Daniel" <dad at POKERWIZ.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "notorious" goes neutral
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Was she a native English speaker? Notorious in, for example, Portuguese
> (notorio) just means widely/generally known, without any negative
> implications.
> DAD
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
> Of
> Jonathan Lighter
>
>
>
> I should mention too that although the "Rape of the Sabine Women" was
> alluded to in passing as something naughtily amusing, the numerous later
> allusions to the absurdly staged fake "rape" whose planning occupies much
> of
> the play were mostly or entirely replaced by the word "raid."  (E.g., more
> or less, "What sort of a raid did you have in mind?")
>
> Also, the character who played a fake Indian was referred to as an "Indian"
> but later as "not really a Native American."
>
> JL
>
> On Sat, Aug 6, 2011 at 6:46 PM, Jonathan Lighter
> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
> >
> :      "notorious" goes neutral
> >
> >
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---
> >
> > Today we went to a local production of _The Fantasticks_. The Chairman of
> > the Board of the theater group (in her late '30s, I'd guess) introduced
> > the performance by saying that it was based on a little-known play by the
> > "famous and notorious Edmond Rostand."
> >
> > Rostand's "most notorious play was _Cyrano de Bergerac_."
> >
> > No, there was not a hint of irony or playfulness in either her intonation
> > or
> > her body lingo.
> >
> > Note too, as a curiosity, that she described herself as "Chairman" rather
> > than "Chairperson."
> >
> > "Notorious" thus = 'noted; celebrated.'
> >
> > JL
> >
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
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> >
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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