friend of Dorothy" (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

_New York Times_ 5/10/1987 p A29 col 1

"In the Whitney is a painting titled "A Friend of Dorothy, 1943" that
spells out various slang expressions for homosexuals in an array of
old-fashioned typefaces. In both works the letters are ornate and
exceedingly proper - redolent of a time when such words, like
homosexuality itself, were taboo. But the language is bold, forthright
and backed by the color, scale and declarative decorativeness of the
painting's design. In "A Friend of Dorothy, 1943," red and green letters
seem to bounce around on a field of yellow, just as our minds are jolted
by the varying ratios of code, euphemism and bigotry inherent in the
language we see."

The subject painting is here:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:BC7V-mV1HLEJ:cruise
orbecruised.tumblr.com/post/3450939612/mcdermott-mcgough-a-friend-of-dor
othy-1943-76+%22A+Friend+of+Dorothy+,+1943%22&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&s
ource=www.google.com

and is dated 1986


> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
Behalf Of
> crawford
> Sent: Tuesday, March 22, 2011 7:50 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: friend of Dorothy"
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> -
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       crawford <neil at TYPOG.CO.UK>
> Subject:      friend of Dorothy"
>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
> -
>
> 'Schuyler could not recall seeing his young blond friend at any of the
> masses before tonight, but often there was wholesale confusion and
resultant
> obscurity. In any case, here he was now, the young friend of a friend
of
> Dorothy, perhaps homosexual himself...'
> ~Ed McBain, 'Vespers: a novel of the 87th Precinct', William Morrow,
1990,
> 144
>
> neil at typog.co.uk
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

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