ATD Windy City (was http://pynchonwiki.com already under attack!)

[davemarc]

On the origin of "Windy City" I'd tend to go with Barry Popik's research--as
you can see, he's done quite a bit of research on the history of the term.
It's not that I'm an expert on the subject myself...but I have spent a while
kibitzing amongst the American Dialect Society, where Popik shares his
research.

http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/summary/

d.


----- Original Message -----
From: Dave Monroe <monropolitan at yahoo.com>
Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2006 7:50 PM
Subject: Re: http://pynchonwiki.com already under attack!


> --- 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