[Ads-l] CPT (1912), on Barry Popik's website

[James A. Landau]

On Wed, 13 Apr 2016 17:04:15 +0000 Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at MST.EDU> wrote:

<begin quote>:
Barry Popik's website contains a fairly detailed treatment of CPT (a 
phrase 
that was recently the subject of an intended humorous skit by Hillary 
Clinton 
and Bill de Blasio).  I'm surprised (and am not alone in this) that 
neither Clinton 
nor de Blasio anticipated the  sharp negative reaction.  
Btw, I had never heard of the CPT phrase but am familiar with its 
synonym "Jewish time", which refers to arriving, say, 10-15 minutes 
late.
<end quote>

A few years ago a list member (I seem to recall it was Arnold Zwicky, but I could be mistaken) posted to this list a case where an African-American woman had used "CPT" (or maybe "colored people time") in conversation with him.  

On a related subject, I once saw a performance of "Lisistrata" in which someone (probably Lisistrata herself) apostrophises a non-existent gathering with the words "like proper Athenians---always late".  I don't know if this be in the original Greek or was added by the theater company (which was knowledgable enough to properly stage the "Haven't you ever seen a Spartan message staff?" scene.)

- Jim Landau


_____________________________________________________________
Netscape.  Just the Net You Need.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org