http://pynchonwiki.com already under attack!

[Dave Monroe]

--- Otto <ottosell at googlemail.com> wrote:

> When I showed my copy of the novel to a friend who
> had lived for some in the USA he immediately
> said "Chicago" when he read "Windy City, here we
> come!" -- which became my first entry in the
> PynchonWiki.

Windy City

The earliest known "Windy City" citations are from
1876, and involve Chicago's rivalry with Cincinnati. A
popular myth states that "Windy City" was first used
by New York Sun editor Charles Dana in the bidding of
the Columbian Exposition of 1893. All four of the
explanations below help with understanding the
enduring popularity of the "Windy City" term, even
after the Cincinnati rivalry and the Columbian
Exposition had both ended....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windy_City,_Origin_of_Name_(Chicago)

Q] From John Branch: "I've heard three explanations
for the term Windy City as an epithet for Chicago,
Illinois: the common assumption that it refers to the
winds gusting through the city (understandable to
anyone who's been there); the boasting of Chicagoans
to the rest of America about the glories of their
rebuilt city after the Great Fire; and the blustering
of Chicago politicians to the city's inhabitants. My
guess is that the first could easily be invention
after the fact, while the last is too local to account
for the term's familiarity elsewhere. What do your
sources tell you?"

[A] It is indeed often said that the word windy in the
name refers to the long-winded and boastful speech of
Chicago politicians.

The story you will commonly find is that it dates to
shortly before the great World's Columbian Exhibition
of 1893. Chicago was putting forward its claim with
great verve and bombast. This really got up the nose
of people in New York, which was competing with
Chicago to host the exhibition. Animosity became so
bad that Charles A Dana, editor of the New York Sun,
wrote an editorial telling New Yorkers to pay no
attention to the "nonsensical claims of that windy
city. Its people could not hold a world's fair even if
they won it". The history books tell us that Chicago
did win it and did hold it (and even made a profit
from it). Books also tell us that the nickname of
Windy City dates from that editorial.

This story is wrong....

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-win1.htm


 
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