New words from Sleepy Hollow

[Joel S. Berson]

At 1/21/2014 08:46 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>I meant "little people" in a Casablancan sense.
>
>Also, to us New York City natives, "upstate" begins north of the Bronx.

Selfie slap! slap!  How could I have denied my heritage?  I lived in
the Bronx from childbirth (at least after I left the hospital) until
I after I graduated from college.  And that too was in NYC.

Joel


>Admittedly, though, Sleepy Hollow ("North Tareytown" till recently) isn't
>too deep into the wilderness.
>
>Which reminds me: a few weeks back it turned out that the lost colony of
>Roanoke was still functioning in some kind of time warp in the wilderness
>of a nearby National Park.
>
>"So what?" you say.  Here's what: They're still speaking *Middle English*!
>  Fortunately, Ichabod had studied it at Oxford and was fluent, but for the
>rest of us the show provided full subtitles.
>
>What I could understand sounded plausibly like Middle English. But maybe it
>was just TV pidgin-Middle.
>
>Another thesis suggestion from the idea bank.
>
>JL
>
>
>On Mon, Jan 20, 2014 at 9:42 PM, 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: New words from Sleepy Hollow
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > At 1/20/2014 08:13 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > >Or not so new. Who cares?
> > >
> > >It's the TV show about a resurrected Ichabod Crane whose Wiccan wife
> > >Katrina gives him advice from Purgatory as he tries each week, with foxy
> > >African-American police detective Abbie Mills, to thwart the demon Moloch
> > >who's been unleashed on upstate New York
> >
> > Seems to be mis-set.  Sleepy Hollow isn't very "upstate".  Although
> > perhaps Purgatory is.
> >
> > >to bring about the End Times with
> > >help from the Headless Horseman of the Apocalypse - who was "killed"
> > >fighting for the Brits in the Revolution before *he* was resurrected in
> > >2013 but luckily George Washington's secretly coded Bible can be used
> > >against both of them.
> > >
> > >Last week:
> > >
> > >"A boondoggle is an exercise in futility, a timesuck, a fool's errand."
> > >
> > >(So "timesuck" is now thought to be more familiar than "boondoggle."
> > >400,000 raw Google hits.)
> > >
> > >"We weren't exactly besties back then." (Best friends. 2,000,000 raw
> > >Googlits.)
> > >
> > >"We need your A-game!"  (Your best and most comprehensive effort [to beat
> > >Moloch]. Maybe a hundred thou RG's: hard to search for.)
> > >
> > >Next time they may explain why two little people - one of them magically
> > >resurrected -
> >
> > Dutch bowler interlopers from Rip Van Winkle?  Or does "little
> > people" mean something else?
> >
> > Joel
> >
> > >trying to stop the Apocalypse with the help of a dead Witch
> > >isn't blasphemy.
> > >
> > >JL
> >
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> >
>
>
>
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>"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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