"Joker"

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Thu Apr 25 16:28:09 UTC 2013


Durn tootin', Rasputin.

JL


On Thu, Apr 25, 2013 at 11:49 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: "Joker"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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."
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------
> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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



More information about the Ads-l mailing list