another SOTA (the Lyons meet the Jones)

[Laurence Horn]

On Apr 30, 2012, at 12:23 PM, Charles C Doyle wrote:

> I was going to ask whether anyone says (or writes) "keeping up with the Jones."  But I discover that thousands and thousands of Googlefolk do.
>
> --Charlie

There are even 153 actual google hits for "keeping up with the Joans", although I'm not sure how many of them involve reanalysis.  (Some have to do with Joan of Arc, so I suspect intentional puns.)
If you search on this string, Google will helpfully ask you if you meant "keeping up with the Jones".

LH
>
> ________________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Laurence Horn [laurence.horn at YALE.EDU]
> Sent: Monday, April 30, 2012 11:47 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> )
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> A follow-up
>
> On Apr 24, 2012, at 8:19 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>
>> 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
>> =20
>> 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
>> =20
>
>
> And now on display:
> =
> http://www.examiner.com/review/keeping-up-with-these-jones-a-rewarding-ven=
> ture-yale-rep-world-premiere
>
> Note that in this case, the playwright does in fact call his play "The =
> Realistic Joneses", and that the reviewer consistently uses "Joneses" in =
> his review, yet clearly neither of these facts prevented the headline =
> writer and his/her editor from "correcting" this to "these Jones".=20
>
> LH
>
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