traveler = 'Communist sympathizer'

[Jonathan Lighter]

As usual, the situation is worse than I thought.

Seriously: everybody who grew up in the forties or fifties knew what a
"fellow traveler" was, and it had nothing to do with the stars.

Except red ones.

JL

On Wed, Mar 2, 2011 at 1:28 PM, Neal Whitman <nwhitman at ameritech.net> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Neal Whitman <nwhitman at AMERITECH.NET>
> Subject:      Re: traveler = 'Communist sympathizer'
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The first time I ever encountered this phrase was yesterday, and it didn't
> have this sense at all. It was in John McWhorter's foreword to Robert Lane
> Greene's _You Are What You Speak_:
>
> The astrophysicist understands the composition and movements of heavenly
> bodies with a degree of detail unattainable by most. However, all readily
> understand in a basic sense why those heavenly bodies would interest him,
> and quite a few even share the interest from a fellow-traveler
> planetarium-style perspective. (viii)
>
> > On Wed, Mar 2, 2011 at 1:06 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> >
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> >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> >> Subject:      Re: traveler = 'Communist sympathizer'
> >>
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> At 3/2/2011 08:12 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >> >By re-analysis of "fellow traveler":
> >> >
> >> >2009 _IMDb_
> >> >http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052600/usercomments?filter=hate:
> >> >A Great Film For A Traveler, Otherwise Just a Curiosity ...  If you
> read
> >> who
> >> >the reviewers are and where they live it gives you a better clue on who
> >> >would totally love this film, I have to think they are travelers, it's
> >> >all
> >> >good, but I'm just saying....it was good, but not great. Then again,
> I'm
> >> not
> >> >a traveler (I joined the military to help protect the USA from Soviet
> >> >aggressions in the 1980's) so take that into account.
> >>
> >> Another word/phrase taken from me, like "gay" (as in "The Gay
> >> Widow")!  Can I no longer refer to someone who accompanied me on a
> >> trip as a "fellow traveler"?  Or even to someone who ... uhm,
> >> excursed, as  just "a traveler"?  :-(
> >>
> >> Joel
>
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