to "run numbers"

[paul johnson]

PAUL JOHNSON
I'm 76 and grew up on the south side of Chicago.  You played the numbers
(sometimes with the help of The Gypsy Dream Book), someone  ran
numbers,  you hit a number, but the only person who ever 'ran the
numbers' was an accountant. Two different trades.

On 10/3/2011 2:49 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 3, 2011 at 2:57 PM, Jonathan Lighter<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>  wrote:
>> Long ago, to "run [the] numbers" meant to control or be an employee of an
>> illegal "numbers game.".
>>
> "The boy had *potential*! Could run the numbers, didn't need pad nor prencil!"
> -Richard Pryor
>
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
> to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

--

If you line up all the cars in the world end-to-end, someone would try to pass.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org