[Ads-l] A random oddity

[Wilson Gray]

LIFE Nov 16, 1962 - Page 35D
Letters to the editors
Miscellany

https://books.google.com/books?id=rEoEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA35#v=onepage&q&f=false

On Thu, Jun 8, 2017 at 1:21 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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
>
>


-- 
-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