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

[Dan Goncharoff]

I didn't think the asterisks were added until the 1972 TV show.

On Sep 24, 2016 1:00 PM, "Jonathan Lighter" <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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
> > -----------------------
> > 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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> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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