[Ads-l] M*A*S*H (was Re: More on "moist")

[Jonathan Lighter]

The movie is titled _MASH_ on screen.

Meanwhile, Xfinity on demand describes in a printed caption the
Bogart-Allyson film _Battle Circus_ (1953) as set in "a M*A*S*H unit during
the Korean War."

Don't know if the initialism itself is used in the movie, irrespective of
asterisks.

JL

On Mon, Aug 10, 2009 at 12:12 AM, Douglas G. Wilson <douglas at nb.net> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>
> Subject:      Re: M*A*S*H (was Re: More on "moist")
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> -------------------
>
> Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > The Army acronym never involved asterisks. Nor did the title of the 1968
> > novel by "Richard Hooker" on which the movie was based.
> >
> > Asterisks may have been added in the 1970 paperback reprints - can't
> recall
> > for sure.  The 1997 printing, the cover of which is visible at Google
> Books,
> > lacks them.
> >
> > If memory serves, the newspaper ads and theatrical posters, all (?) of
> which
> > included the
> > asterisks, bore the explanatory footnote,   " *Mobile Army Surgical
> > Hospital."  That's what the asterisks were there for.
> --
>
> Those asterisks were added by Hyman Kaplan, I think. (^_^)
>
> -- Doug Wilson
>
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