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Pastimes : Don't Ask Rambi -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ish who wrote (55421)	8/30/2000 1:27:13 PM
From: jbe	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 71178

Ok, as long as you were having fun. It looked like you were working* to prove me wrong, not that anyone has to try to find errors in my posts.. Ish, let me beat this dead horse once again, because I should hate there to be any misunderstanding between us. Let's review the multilateral exchange on this thread about the Great Real McCoy Issue. First to bring it up is Crocodile, with her reference to "real McCoy paisley" produced in Paisley, Scotland. Message 14289491 You join in with your version (bootlegger McCoy): Message 14289672 JF Quinnelly then posts you - twice -- about yet another contender for the title (black inventor Elijah McCoy). Message 14290759 Message 14290790 At this point, I get interested (can't resist discussions about word origins/meanings), and find some "expert" responses on the web to the question: "Oh, great guru, what is the origin of the phrase 'the real McCoy'?" The first response I find (from "Word Sleuth"), I post to JF, with the intro: More on "The Real McCoy" (who may have actually been "The Real Mackay"): Message 14291064 Word Sleuth says there are "at least half a dozen theories" about who "the real McCoy" was, specifically mentioning: a cattle baron, inventor Elijah McCoy, and prizefighter Kid McCoy. In passing, however, he also cites the Oxford English Dictionary's citation of the phrase "the real MacKay" in an 1883 letter, antedating the appearance of any "real McCoy" in the US, and I think, "hmmm..." The next response I find (from "Word Detective") I post to you (with congratulations), because he votes for the bootlegger MacKay version (again, because he simply likes it the best): Message 14291096 At the same time, Word Detective claims there are TEN top contenders for the title of "the real McCoy"(not just a half dozen), and in addition to the bootlegger, he specifically mentions the following: 1) somebody connected with the Hatfield-McCoy feud; 2) prizefighter Kid McCoy (as above); 3) pure heroin from Macao (corrupted to McCoy). In passing, Word Detective also mentions the RSL letter, noting: We do know that it first appeared in the exact form "real McCoy" around 1922 (although a letter written by author Robert Louis Stevenson in 1883 uses the phrase "real MacKay," which may or may not have anything to do with our modern "real McCoy"). My question to myself was: Why didn't you bother, O word-detective word-sleuth gurus, to find out whether it does* have "anything to do with" it, before sounding off on this question? That continued to scratch at my brain (along with Crocodile's reference to the paisley produced in Scotland). So I decided, out of idle curiosity, to see whether I could find anything out for myself. And what I found out was that a lot of information was out there, ripe for any googler's picking. I posted the results of my "exploration" to you, since you were the last to respond to me. Message 14291429 Ish, do you still really think I was "working" to prove you wrong? The version you posted, for one thing, was only one of many. And I would think you would know by now, Ish, that I am not interested in being "right", or in proving others "wrong" (unless they pretend to expertise they don't have, which you were not doing); it's the fun of the chase that interests me. :>) Joan