"icon"

[Jonathan Lighter]

> Or if they have 4:53 to spare

Do you know how many texts they'd miss?!

JL


On Sun, May 5, 2013 at 9:02 AM, 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: "icon"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On May 5, 2013, at 7:54 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
> > In today's version, it's "_slain_ Civil Rights icon Emmett Till."
>  Usually
> > the phrase you hear is "slain Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther
> King,"
> > but since Till wasn't a "leader," the only alternative in media Inglish
> is
> > "icon."
> >
> > It would take too long - apparently - to tell
> millennials-on-brain-support
> > just who Emmett Till  was. You know, "a young black teenager kidnaped,
> > beaten, and murdered by white racists in 1955."
>
> Or if they have 4:53 to spare you could have them listen to Emmylou Harris
> singing "My name is Emmett Till".
>
> LH
> >
> > "Civil Rights icon" is just cooler.
> >
> > JL
> >
> >
> > On Sun, May 5, 2013 at 1:42 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >> -----------------------
> >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> >> Subject:      Re: "icon"
> >>
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> On Sat, May 4, 2013 at 7:42 PM, Jonathan Lighter <
> wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
> >>> wrote:
> >>
> >>> Honestly, I don't think "martyr" or "idol" has anything to do with it.
> >>
> >>
> >> *Especially* not in the case cited. Victim? Yes. "Icon"?! No!
> >>
> >> --
> >> -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
> >>
> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >> 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
>



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