[Ads-l] A random oddity

[Jonathan Lighter]

I've never heard of "Luke the Spook," but see HDAS for "Luke the Gook" of
Korea and Vietnam (largely a USMC term, acc. to the printed evidence).

Here's a 1946 ref. to the Kilroyesque "Luke the Spook" in Life Magazine:

http://tinyurl.com/ybumpprj

Scroll down to p.8.

The early GB evidence for "Luke the Spook" as a syn. for Kilroy is very
thin. Most of the exx. refer to a supposed ghost, and obviousness suggests
that was the original sense. ("Who's that round-headed cartoon with big
round eyes peering over the fence? Looks like Luke the Spook".)

What's the evidence that the B-29 "Luke the Spook" was named for the
cartoon rather than for the ghost? The alleged nose art, which might settle
the matter, seems not to be online.

JL

On Wed, Jun 7, 2017 at 6:20 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Wed, Jun 7, 2017 at 5:33 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I don't know why the reference was made on Archer, but isn't Luke the
> Spook
> > a Kilroy-like image? I have no idea which came first, the doodle or the
> > nose art.
> >
>
> Neither do I. I wasn't paying any attention till I heard "Luke the Spook."
> unfortunately. But you are correct. sir, WRT the Kilroy connection. The
> graffito is older than the nose-art. The reference to a photo of the
> nose-art on the B-29 in 'Pedia is wrong. However, there's enough other info
> available for me to say that Kilroy and Luke were the same "person."
>
> I came across a letter-to-the-editor from an ex-GI who wrote that he was
> familiar only with Luke the Spook as the graffito's name and that Luke was
> the *Army's* version of Kilroy. My personal, *childhood* memory is only of
> Kilroy, from cartoons and funny-books. So, I'm not willing to contradict
> the memory of someone who was actually in the Army and an adult, During The
> War.
> --
> -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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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."

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