European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 03, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 4 the stars and stripes tuesday september 3,1985 a Dustall by 170 names is still a of Useba Boston Jap there Are texans who Call men Gigue calf slobber tennesseans who Feick to snoring As calling the hogs and Miscoi unites who say a it ulicious person Hai beam up his some new Jersey residents suffer buckwheat itch supposedly from eating pancakes in summer. In Virginia and North Carolina firecrackers arc called to be Bow legged in Ken Tucky is to be Bandy thanked those Folk expressions and to Sanda like them can now be found in one place the dictionary of american regional English which took nearly 100 Yean from Conception to publication. Among the nearly 170 names for dust balls that form under furniture Are House most file Buzz Wootie Bunny Tail and the tint volume of the dictionary Edi Ted by Frederic g. Cassidy professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin and head of its pare Imi Siulc is being published by Harvard University press and will soon be in bookstores. The $49.95, 903-Page volume coven a through four More volumes Are expected to be published Over the next several Yean they Are the results of the fint Compi Latiok of the quaint funny sad melodious and vulgar strains in american speech. You get a sense sometimes that people were trying to outdo each other in coming up with colourful expressions said Cassidy 77. Food for example spawns expressions such As Cape cod Turkey for codfish Albany beef for Sturgeon Connecticut River pork for Shad Alaska Turkey for Salmon and Arkansas Tbone for Bacon. There Are scores of local names for Fauna and Flora such As the Black eyed Susan which yielded so different names. There is the language of children s games foreign phrases illnesses and natural Phenomena. There Are euphemisms such As calling an illegitimate child a catch Colt in parti of the Northwest or warning a woman in the South that her slip is show ing by saying her Cotton is Low. There Are etymologies. Cakewalk or piece of cake meaning something easy has its roots in Black dance contests that featured a cake As tint prize. Pioneers made buttons from Sycamore Trees so they naturally called it the dictionary also captures words fad ing from the language. Example include old chestnuts to Northe Sternen some thing that is worn out by use and the much More Remote Batter Fang to assail violently in Davy Crockett s Day. The dictionary s foundation is the More than 40,1-w expressions culled from local publications by the american dialect society founded in 1889. That work was expanded by Cassidy whose assistants conducted 1,847-question surveys to 1,002 communities from 1965 to 1970. The project got started in Earnest when Cassidy began badgering the society to make Good on its Promise to publish such a dictionary. I kept asking when it was going to be done. They asked me How to do it. I wrote an article for them on How i would do it and then found myself dented editor said Cassidy. That was in 1963, and be and prof eur Audrey r. Duckert of the uni Venity of Massachusetts set to work. Cassidy says there is plenty in the dictionary to inform and entertain the casual Reader. He notes however that Only re Giona Litins not expressions which an widely used Are included. Cassidy whose writings include a Book on the language of his native Jamaica and on old English is especially proud of the computer drawn maps which accompany Many entries to show where the express ions Are in use. They show for example that cat a pampas and its variations meaning Askew or wrong can be heard throughout the country except in the Northeast How Ever rubbish it mulch mainly to Maine resident. Entries often include various pronunciations and quotes from questionnaire respondents. An Illinois resident explained that Chicken eater was a nickname for preacher because women used to bring a preacher roast Chicken on a Southern Indiana resident said people might think Yon were Brash if you answered straight oat Yea to an offer of Foror drink so to be polite you said i Don t Cue " the first volume lists All of the Quet tons and All questionnaire respondent identifying them by Community age Edu cation occupation sex and race. Entries include codes which indicate what Type of hmm would use the expression. The final volume will include condensations of the More than 2 million responses to the questionnaire. For example readers will find some of the More than 300 answers Given when asked for the name of a countrified per son. Those include swamp Angel Goober grabber Apple Knocker Mossback and hayseed still Cassidy expects to get letters with More words and expressions and says that the dictionary will probably be expanded a task made easier for the dare Institute staff of in people by computer. There will be some things in obscure Corners. We Don t pm Catena to having caught eve Cirth ing he said. Proxmire says unfilled jobs crippling health Agency Washington a sen. William Proxmire. D wii., charged monday that the Reagan administration u crippling the department of health and human scr ice by failing to fill key management jobs. There Are so Many individuals holding their jobs on an acting Basil that the running joke for months has been that health and human services is turning into a thespian society he said. Proxmire said president Reagan should give has Secretary Margaret m. Heckler the Power to run the $330 billion department or replace her with someone he trusts. White House staff interference with the management of the department. Is crippling that Agency he said. Proxmire noted that the Job of undersecretary the nuts and bolts administrator is among those unfilled. Charles Baker relinquished that Post the no. 2 Job on aug. 16, to return to his consulting business in Boston. In addition Proxmire said a Large number of other presidential appointments have been left vacant. Act ing officials Are standing in in such key posts As Gener Al counsel the assistant Secretary Tor legislation the assistant Secretary for planning the assistant Secre tary for health the commissioner of social Security and the head of the health care financing administration. Martha Mcsteen is marking her second anniversary Thil month As acting commissioner of social Security. The democratic senator said that he undoubtedly will oppose some of those Reagan eventually Nomi nates for the empty posts. But he said the department now is just badly managed whatever the policy goals. It i time for him to go beyond Mere tokenism and actually give heckler the authority to manage the department. Or he should replace her without someone whose Pennal judgment he Trust Proxmire said. Fires in 4 Western states Burn Over 70,000 acres by United press International More than 3,400 firefighters battled Timber and Brush blazes in Washington Idaho Montana and Wyoming monday hoping that favourable weather would help contain flames that have blackened More than 70,000 acres. The fires bumped in two National Parks three National forests and an Indian Reser vation As Well As Range lands in the four Western states. About 400 firefighters in Western Washington sunday contained about half of a 1,200-acre Blaze in olympic National Park but Park spokesman Randy Jones said containment was still several Days away. The fire resulted from an illegally set campfire. In Wyoming a lightning caused fire in the Taggart cake area of grand Teton National Park consumed about 1,000 acres by sunday and burned a Large Cabin used by Mountain climbers. About 500 firefighters from the National Park service us. Forest service Bureau of Indian affairs us. Fish and wildlife serv ice and the Utah forestry division joined local volunteers in battling the Blaze. Crews used a Mobile weather station provided by the National weather service to help predict the fire s behaviour. Farther West a Forest service spokesman sunday declined to predict when firefighters will contain a 31,000-acre Blaze burning in Idaho s Salmon National Forest and Montana s bitterroot National Forest but Jim Stone said increased humidity and a decrease in wind Speed helped slow the fire Down. Stone said the 580 firefighters from six Western states would concentrate on hold ing and strengthening fire lines and begin mopping up on the West South and East Ern flanks. As conditions allow the strategy is to take direct control on the Northern perimeter where the fire is spreading Stone added. In North Central Washington Crews gained the upper hand on the lightning sparked Barker Mountain Blaze that charred about 32,000 acres destroyed at least 15 Homes and briefly threatened the town of Tonasket. They re making Progress and it looks pretty Good As far As firefighting Crews Are concerned said Julianne Crane a state department of natural resources spokeswoman. Forest service spokesman Warren Olney said As Many As 37 Homes May have burned Down. Crane said firefighters hoped to contain the Blaze monday. Crews included about 1,400 Forest service firefighters and 200 from the department of natural re sources she said. Meanwhile Wyoming firefighters ran into wind problems in their attempt to con Tain a 6,500-acre Blaze raging across Timber Sagebrush and grasslands in the rattle Snake Hills about 50 Miles West of Casper. Bureau of land management spokeswoman Barb Ward said about 350 people were battling the flames which at one Point burned to within about 450 Yards of a Large ranch. Hurricane s namesake Little girl 1. Her
