another SOTA (the Lyons meet the Jones)

[Jonathan Lighter]

Doesn't Google mean "keeping up with the Jones' "?

JL

On Mon, Apr 30, 2012 at 12:39 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:      Re: another SOTA (the Lyons meet the Jones)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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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