"Joker"

[Joel S. Berson]

At 4/25/2013 10:02 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>...
>Meanwhile, and again interesting from the point of view of linguistic
>infotainment, Joker's uncle and mom have both mentioned an older man named
>Misha, an Armenian, who, in mom's words, "opened our eyes" to Islam.

An apostate Jew?  Another case of transliteration problems. (And
presumably by way of Christianity to Islam -- isn't Armenia
predominantly Christian?)

>She describes him as a wonderful person.  Pretty inconclusive, you say.
>
>Though we know nothing more about him, he is now, according to CNN, the
>"mysterious man named Misha" who "may have had a mesmerizing influence on
>the brothers."

The "two brothers" are now being called (by some) "masterminds" of
the bombings.  If that's true, then they were not under mesmerizing influence.

Joel


>You can't beat alliteration. Unless you're the late Johnnie Cochran..
>
>JL
>
>
>On Thu, Apr 25, 2013 at 8:42 AM, Amy West <medievalist at w-sts.com> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Amy West <medievalist at W-STS.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: "Joker"
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > On 4/25/13 12:02 AM, Automatic digest processor wrote:
> > >>>> >> >Russified <Tsarnaev> [tsahr-NA-yeff] variously anglified:
> > [zar-NA-yev],
> > >>>> >> >even heard an early [Sarnoff]. The patronymic <Anzorovich>
> > identifies the
> > >>>> >> >alleged father, <Anzor>. Black hat Tamerlan [tammer-LANN] (no
> > doubt yearned
> > >>>> >> >to live up to his namesake, Tamerlane 1336-1405, <When I rise
> > from the
> > >>>> >> >dead, the world shall tremble!>)
> > > I'm so glad that I'm not the only one who was thinking that. I have not
> > > heard a peep re: this on the one medieval list I read. (And my youngest
> > > played soccer with a Timur. . . ) I downloaded Marlowe's "Tamburlaine"
> > > to read, but I can't recall what the medieval source would have been
> > > that Marlowe used. . .
> > And then later on in the day I remembered the connection between Boston
> > and the name "Tamerlane" that had been nagging at the back of my mind:
> >
> > Poe's first collection of poems was published in Boston in 1829?. The
> > title? _Tamerlane and Other Poems_. While Poe was born in Boston, he
> > didn't grow up here, and he left Boston in a huff after the publication.
> >
> > ---Amy West
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > 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."
>
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