TV ad: "... a real dude ranch"

[Jonathan Lighter]

As is usually the case, Wilson speaks true.

To judge from the extant literature of the period, the genuine cowboy's
notion of the "dude ranch" was that it was a ridiculous and somewhat
contemptible sell-out to city-slickerdom, "dudes" being by definition
"effete."

Of course, I can't speak for all genuine cowboys of a hundred years ago, or
even any of them. Another GOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLLL!!!!!! for Jacques Derrida.

JL


On Sat, May 24, 2014 at 7:47 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: TV ad: "... a real dude ranch"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Sat, May 24, 2014 at 4:38 PM, Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at ix.netcom.com
> >wrote:
>
> > I thought a dude ranch was a place where cowboys did cowboy things.
>
>
> Sigh! Well, those of us to whose eye the phrase, "Ken Maynard and Tarzan,
> The Wonder Horse!", brings a tear of nostalgia for childhood past recall
> the "dude ranch" as a vacation resort set up to resemble a "working ranch"
> for the entertainment of "dudes" - i.e. swells, lames, squares - from the
> effete east wanting all of the fun, but none of the work, of the cowboy
> life on the western plains.
>
> In other words, cowboys did do cowboy things on a dude ranch, but only to
> put on a show as entertainment for vacationing dudes. Cf. the
> "professionals" working at ski resorts, for instance.
>
>
> --
> -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
>
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>



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