Barney Miller and the linguist
So back in the
-Vlicious thread I remembered a
guy on "Barney Miller" enraged by pickle ad copy along the lines of
"crunch-crunch-crunchalicious". This might or might not have happened,
though the wonderfully fey "ko-ko-kosherific" (note portmanteau of
kosher and
terrific) pretty clearly did. And
the language loony was identified as, oh dear, a
LINGUIST.
Thanks to John O'Meara for the "ko-ko-kosherific" reference, which
resonates with me. My recollection is that it was the second
portmanteau in the show, though I could be wrong. (I'm still
working on getting to the original material.) In any case, it was
in the seventh (of eight) seasons:
135 The Psychic First
Aired: February 5, 1981
Writers: Tony Sheehan, Frank Dungan, Jeff Stein
Director: Noam Pitlik
Guest Stars: Kenneth Tigar, Fred Sadoff, Rod Colbin, Larry Hankin,
Robert Burgos
A linguist vandalizes a billboard to protest improper grammar in
advertising; and a psychic foils a purse snatcher--before the crime is
committed.
Yes, someone who presents himself as caring about language is a
"linguist". We go around vandalizing vulgar errors and
terrorizing their perpetrators. Everybody knows that.
zwicky at-sign csli period stanford period edu
Posted by Arnold Zwicky at September 4, 2006 06:48 PM