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Pinstripes and Plaid - why the New York Americans became Highlanders and Yankees
In 1903, Ban Johnson’s American League brought a team to New York City to compete directly with the National League’s New York Giants for fans in the lucrative New York City baseball market. The new...
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Giant Women of Baseball - Women Owned the Polo Grounds
Baseball has long been considered, for the most part, a “man’s” sport. Or at least a “manly” sport – remember, “there’s no crying in baseball!”[i] But that hasn’t kept women out of baseball. During...
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Illicit Card Games at Phillips Exeter Academy- an antedating of "Strip Poker"...
The earliest known references to the game of strip poker, albeit under a different name, are reports of Freshmen at Yale University walking home “at all hours of the night with hardly enough clothing...
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Snorkeys, Red Caps and Railroad Tracks - a Melodramatic History of Amputee...
“Snorkeys vs. Hoppers,” National Police Gazette, October 29, 1887.[i]The novel spectacle of eighteen men with but fifty-four limbs prancing over the diamond was enjoyed by over five hundred people at...
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Knickerbocker Dudes - a Window into the History and Origin of "Dude"
The word “Dude” made its debut in the English Language in January 1883, in a poem entitled “The True Origin and History of ‘the Dude,’”[i] written by an Irish-born Englishman living in New York City...
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Tuxedo Junction, What's Your Function? - Men's Wear or Women's?
[Tuxedo Junction, Erskine Hawkins and his Orchestra, 1939.]Surprisingly, perhaps, during the first few years of existence of the men’s fashion now known as a “Tuxedo,” the meaning of the word “Tuxedo”...
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Blackface, Yellow-Face and Alligator Bait - Sidney Perrin's Complicated Career
“Mammy’s Little Alligator Bait” is an obscure song first published in 1899, with music by Sidney Perrin and words by Henry Wise. It is only known today (to the extent it’s known at all) for its...
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Boxing Elephants - John L. Sullivan Joins the Circus
In March of 1891, a zookeeper in Philadelphia sparred with a kangaroo nicknamed “John L.,” named after the “famous pugilist,” John L. Sullivan.[i] That kangaroo “fight” in Philadelphia may have been...
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"I Have a Snake in My Boot" - Drunken Hallucination
The Riddleberger Boot.In Pixar’s classic film, “Toy Story,” the lead character, Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks), is a child’s cowboy doll with a pull-string voice box. One of the stock phrases elicited...
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"A Quarter Back" - a Visual Football Pun (1893)
Life Magazine, Volume 21, Number 543, May 25, 1893, page 341. See my other football related posts:Jim Thorpe Punts, Catches and Scores Touchdown on the Same Play – Myth or Legend?Spoiler alert – it’s...
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Frank Tinney, Ida May Chadwick and Joseph Zilch - Why "Zilch" Means "Zero"
Zero, zip, zilch, nada – that’s what has previously been known about the ultimate origin of the word, “Zilch,” an Americanism meaning “zero.” It has generally been understood that the word was...
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The Kings of the Dudes - E. Berry Wall and Heirs to the Throne - Introduction
In 1914, the American bon vivant Evander Berry Wall warned a fellow traveler:“Holy smoke!” he growled; “you don’t want to go to Jerusalem. I’ve just been there. It’s a slow town. Why, you can’t get a...
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Kings of the Dudes Part I - Evander Berry Wall - the Original and Best
Evander Berry WallEvander Berry Wall was precisely the kind of man Robert Sale Hill had in mind when he coined the word “Dude,” he earned his money the old fashioned way – he inherited it. And...
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Kings of the Dudes Part II - Heirs to the Dude Throne - Onativia and Teall
Kings of the Dudes - IntroductionKings of the Dudes - Part I - Evander Berry WallKings of the Dudes Part III - Western Dudes - J. Waldere Kirk With Berry Wall losing his grip on the dubious title,...
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Kings of the Dudes Part III - Western Dudes - J. Waldere Kirk and others
Kings of the Dudes - IntroductionKings of the Dudes - Part I - Evander Berry WallKings of the Dudes Part II - Heirs to the Throne - Onativia and Teall J. Waldere Kirk New York, March 28. . . . [J....
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Biography of Robert Sale Hill - Inventor of the "Dude"
A version of this article first appeared in print as, “Biography of Robert Sale Hill,” Peter Reitan, Comments on Etymology (edited by Gerald Cohen, Missouri University of Science & Technology),...
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Hokey Pokey or Hokey Cokey? Wrong! It's the Cokey Cokey. What's that all about?
Fannie Wych Dunn, Everyday Classics, Primer-Eighth Reader, New York, Macmillan, 1917, page 41. It’s a familiar song played at what seems like every wedding ever; “put your right foot in, put your right...
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"Ji-ji-boo J. O'Shea" - How the Name of a Stranded Irishman became a...
“Jigaboo” is a variant of “Ji-ji-boo,” the first name of a character in a song about an Irishman who became the king of an “Indian isle.” The song, “I’ve Got Rings on My Fingers, or Mumbo Jumbo...
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"Hokey Pokey" and Madame Boki - Hawaiian Royalty and the History and Origin...
“Hokey Pokey” is a perennial wedding reception favorite - “put your left foot in, put your left foot out . . . .” “Jigaboo” is an archaic insult, a pejorative term for a black person, perhaps a notch...
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Rabies, Pain and Confusion - Why I Scream, You Scream and We All Scream for...
Language Tortured. - Why is the inscription generally found in confectioners’ shops of ‘Water Ices and Ice Creams,” like a person attacked with hydrophobia - because when ‘Water I sees, I screams.’...
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