another SOTA or two

[Jonathan Lighter]

What, "savagely sentimental" isn't a SOTA?

The play as described reminds me of Frank and Fanny Farkel, Sparkle
Farkel, Fred Farkel, Flicker Farkel,  Mark Farkel, the twins Simon and Gar
Farkel - and their friend, Ferd Berfel.

They were called "The Farkel Family."

JL

On Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 8:19 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      another SOTA or two
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> A new, evidently quite literate and charming play on Broadway, "The =
> Lyons", was reviewed in the Times today:
> =
> http://theater.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/theater/reviews/the-lyons-by-nicky-s=
> ilver-at-vineyard-theater-review.html
>
> It's a "savagely sentimental portrait of familial loneliness" by Nicky =
> Silver and starring Linda Lavin, which is fine, only the family in =
> question consists of Curtis Lyons, Lisa Lyons, Ben Lyons, and Rita =
> Lyons, which according to the way I was brought up would make the family =
> (and thus the name of any eponymous play) "The Lyonses".  Alternatively, =
> the members of the family would consist of "Curtis Lyon", "Lisa Lyon", =
> etc.  Apparently this didn't bother either the playwright or the =
> reviewer, who doesn't mention it.  Has this shift now become inevitable? =
>  (Well, I suppose the play could have been called "The Lyon's".)=20
>
> A much smaller and discreet SOTA:  in the equally literate "The Good =
> Wife" on CBS this week, a well-spoken (and, of course, sexy) lawyer =
> explains that she's interested in leaving her current job at a large =
> firm because "There are too fifedoms" there.  (Rhymes with "wifedom".)   =
> Lots of parades, I'm thinking. =20
>
> OK, prescriptivist goggles doffed now.
>
> LH=20
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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