Date: Mon, 4 Nov 2002 08:30:52 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Leo Weigant Subject: Re: Jizz? Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Thanks, Gail, I was going to write asking about that story and you reminded me of where I first heard it (from you). Those of us older folk who can remember WWII from childhood, remember seeing "Plane Spotter" cards (actual playing cards) with silhouettes (top, side, front) of Messerschmitts and Heinkels that were posted for an extensive network of civilian "spotters." It takes little imagination to picture certain Brits-with-binoculars after the war tramping around the Lake District or the Cotswolds trying to convey the GISS (or "gizz" - - linguistically that's a natural, almost a predictible, sound shift) of birds just as they had done during the Battle of Britain a few years before. That had been such a wide-spread and organized acxtivity in WWII that it makes me wonder about it having originated during WWI (when the Germans made a few forays acrosss the Channel - - zeppelins, etc. - - but not enough to have engenderd such a linguistic phenomenon, I'd guess. Too bad we don't know a Brit who could set us straight. Leo ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================