[Ads-l] A random oddity

[Wilson Gray]

Lucas "Luke the Spook" Troy in _Archer_"

http://archer.wikia.com/wiki/Lucas_Troy

On Wed, Jun 7, 2017 at 8:59 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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
>



-- 
-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