[Ads-l] one of the only?

[Laurence Horn]

I think "one of the only [musicians]" has been around for awhile, like it or not, although objectively it does seem a bit silly.  My speculation is that it was infused by both "one of the few [musicians] and "one of the only n [musicians]", as in "Sammy Sosa was one of the only 4 batters ever to hit more home runs than Babe Ruth in a single season", conveying both that there were [surprisingly/noteworthily] only 4 and than Sosa was one of them. 

LH 

> On Aug 31, 2016, at 8:27 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> Sounds fine to me, though "few" would work also.
> 
> JL
> 
> On Wed, Aug 31, 2016 at 8:16 PM, Flourish Klink <flourish.klink at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> I agree. Shockingly low standards from the Grey Lady. And I am a
>> millennial!
>> 
>> On Wed, Aug 31, 2016, 5:09 PM George Thompson <george.thompson at nyu.edu>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> From a recent obituary
>>> ​in the NYTimes:
>>> ​
>>> Toots Thielemans, one of the only musicians to have a successful career
>> as
>>> a jazz harmonica player, died on Monday in Brussels. He was 94.
>>> 
>>> ​
>>> I would write "​
>>> the only musician to have a successful career as a jazz harmonica player
>>> ​" or
>>> "​
>>> on
>>> ​e of ​
>>> the
>>> ​few ​
>>> musician
>>> ​s​
>>> to have a successful career as a jazz harmonica player
>>> ​"
>>> --
>>> ​ ​
>>> no doubt because I am an old codger.​
>>> ​
>>> I believe that the first statement is true, the second the sort of
>> waffling
>>> that is common in the press, leading to statements like "the Battle of
>>> Gettysburg is widely regarded as an important event in the Civil War",
>> but
>>> that's another matter.​
>>> 
>>> ​GAT
>>> 
>>> ​
>>> George A. Thompson
>>> The Guy Who Still Looks Stuff Up in Books.
>>> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
>>> Univ. Pr., 1998.
>>> 
>>> But when aroused at the Trump of Doom / Ye shall start, bold kings, from
>>> your lowly tomb. . . .
>>> 
>>> L. H. Sigourney, "Burial of Mazeen", *Poems*.  Boston, 1827, p. 112
>>> 
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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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