FW (from B. Popik): Rachel Maddow doesn't know "Union Square" etymology; "Hispandering" not coined by Mickey Kaus

[Wilson Gray]

How in the world can anyone think that, in the United States,
"socialist" organizations like labor unions have ever been so popular
that anything not owned by a union would ever be named in honor of the
labor-union movement?

Unions are considered to be "liberal," nowadays. This wasn't always
the case. It's likely that most readers are unaware of the infamous
"grandfather clause" that was used by unions to ensure that no black
person could ever become a union man. Many readers are probably aware
of the Brotherhood of Sleeping-Car Porters. But readers probably
aren't aware that that members of that union were also obliged to be
dues-paying "members" of the lily-white Brotherhood of Railway
Trainmen, which controlled all access to all non-management positions
in railroading. Back in the day, the Steelworkers Union routinely
signed contracts with Big Steel that excluded black steelworkers from
union protections and salaries. The money thus saved let Big Steel
maintain the relatively-high wages of white steelworkers at no real
cost to stockholders.

That is, till quite recently, everyone - from rich, white capitalists
to poor, black laborers - despised unions.
--
-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


On Tue, May 1, 2012 at 10:49 AM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at mst.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at MST.EDU>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â FW (from B. Popik): Rachel Maddow doesn't know "Union Square"
> Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â etymology; "Hispandering" not coined by Mickey Kaus
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Barry Popik sent the message below to several people, and with his
> permission I now forward it to ads-l.
>
> Gerald Cohen
>
> _______________________________
> From: Barry Popik [mailto:bapopik at aol.com]
> Sent: Mon 4/30/2012 9:02 PM
> Subject: Rachel Maddow doesn't know "Union Square" etymology;
> "Hispandering" not coined by Mickey Kaus
>
> HISPANDERING:
> "Hispandering" has been in the news a lot lately; I have "spandering"
> on my website, while Grant Barrett's Double-Tongued Dictionary has a
> one-citation entry for "Hispandering." Mickey Kaus is usually given
> credit for coining the term, but it appears that this is incorrect:
> http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/hispandering_hispanic_pandering/
> ...
> RACHEL MADDOW'S STAFF DOESN'T SPEND FIVE SECONDS TO LOOK UP THE ORIGIN
> OF "UNION SQUARE":
> In February 2011, Rachel Maddow did a long piece on the labor union
> history of Wisconsin, and she highlighted that Wisconsin has seven
> towns named "Union." In July 2011, Maddow again said that Wisconsin has
> a long labor union history and history and seven towns named "Union." I
> wrote to the Wisconsin Historical Society, and it appears that not one
> of the towns is named after a labor union--most were named before
> unions were formed in the 1880s. I wrote to Maddow, who of course never
> wrote back or issued a correction. See:
> http://www.redstate.com/barrypopik/2011/07/23/correcting-msnbcs-rachel-maddow-does-wisconsin-really-have-seven-towns-named-after-labor-unions/
> http://newsbusters.org/blogs/jack-coleman/2011/07/25/maddow-claim-about-wisc-towns-named-union-looks-decidedly-dubious
> ...
> On today's show, Rachel Maddow said that there will be labor union
> demonstrations in New York City tomorrow on May Day (May 1st), and why
> do you think they call it "Union Square"? I immediately knew this is
> wrong. Yes, her staff is so lazy that it can't spare the five seconds
> to find this on Google:
> ...
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Square_(New_York_City)
> Union Square is a public square in the Manhattan borough of New York
> City, New York.
> It is an important and historic intersection, located where Broadway
> and the former Bowery Road - now Fourth Avenue - came together in the
> early 19th century; its name celebrates neither the Federal union of
> the United States nor labor unions but rather denotes that "here was
> the union of the two principal thoroughfares of the island".
> ...
>
> <snip>
> ...
> Barry Popik
> Austin, TX
> www.barrypopik.com
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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