Date:  Wed, 3 Jan 1996 10:50:12 -0500

From:  ALICE FABER <faber[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]HASKINS.YALE.EDU>

Subject: Sound change in progress or A New York Moment



An interesting tidbit from this morning's New York Times. Every Wednesday,

they publish a column called Metropolitan Diary, which contains readers'

reports of (purported) quintessential New York Moments, overheard

conversational gems, and the like. (I say purported, because they once

published as 'true' cute kid story something that my mother had heard as a

joke in New Mexico.) Herewith the last item from today's column:

    Dear Diary:

        Searching through the maze of Bloomingdale's with a friend

    who had to find socks to go with the shoes she had just bought, I

    stopped in front of a young clerk handing out store guides. The

    following conversation occurred.

    Me: Excuse me, where are socks?

    Guide: They're at 50th and Fifth.

    Me, puzzled: Socks?

    Guide, insistent: Yes, 50th and Fifth Avenue.

    I asked the next guide where I could find hosiery.



Decoding for non-New Yorkers: Bloomingdales is on Lexington Avenue, at or near

59th St. Saks Fifth Avenue is indeed on Fifth Avenue, at 50th St. I assume

that most ADS-Lers know the socioeconomics of Saks; Bloomingdales is similar

economically, but a bit trendier (for instance, it has a nickname,

Bloomies...)



Alice Faber

faber[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]haskins.yale.edu