"Joker"

[Laurence Horn]

On Apr 25, 2013, at 7:27 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:

> At 4/25/2013 04:22 PM, W Brewer wrote:
>> It would not be unreasonable to speculate that some parents want their sons
>> to live up to the ideals of Mohammed, Moses, or Grover Cleveland.
>
> Or Roosevelt.  Two professional football players born in 1932 that I
> know of.

And I suspect the same two I used to cheer for--Rosey Brown on the N. Y. Giants' offensive line, Rosey Grier on their defensive line before he joined the L. A. Rams to be part of their Fearsome Foursome and took time out to wrestle Sirhan x 2 to the floor of the Ambassador Hotel a bit too late on that awful day, if memory serves.

LH


> I wonder how many parents named their sons Warren or
> Herbert in the preceding decade.
>
> Joel
>
>
>
>> On Fri, Apr 26, 2013 at 3:56 AM, Cleve Evans
>> <cleveland.evans at bellevue.edu>wrote:
>>
>> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> > -----------------------
>> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> > Poster:       Cleve Evans <cleveland.evans at BELLEVUE.EDU>
>> > Subject:      Re: "Joker"
>> >
>> >
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >
>> > I'd just like to point out that in the absence of either direct
>> > information from the person himself or his parents, and without knowing
>> > anything about how common the name Tamerlan has been historically in
>> > Chechnya and Dagestan, the idea that Tamerlan was some sort of "burden"
>> > this guy had to "live up to" may be just as silly as speculating that the
>> > actions of an American named William, George, or Al have something to do
>> > with trying to "live up to" the memory of William the Conqueror, George
>> > Washington, or Al Capone.
>> >
>> >
>> > 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
>> >
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>> >
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>> >
>>
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>
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