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- Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!balrog!ctron.com
- From: smith@ctron.com (Larry Smith)
- Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
- Subject: Re: french
- Message-ID: <4642@balrog.ctron.com>
- Date: 31 Jul 92 19:10:55 GMT
- References: <Brspxq.KDM@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
- Sender: usenet@balrog.ctron.com
- Reply-To: smith@ctron.com
- Organization: Cabletron Systems, Inc.
- Lines: 20
- Nntp-Posting-Host: glinda
-
- In article <Brspxq.KDM@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>, baron@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Dennis Baron) writes:
- >A New York minute seems to be a very brief time (< 60 secs.); is
- >it negative? I heard it during convention coverage, but since I
- >am from New York I am not familiar with the term.
-
- As a former NY'er, I can testify that a New York minute is less than one
- second. NY'ers talk fast and walk fast and often seem to more laid-back
- citizens of the country to be in fast-forward. I also think it derives
- from the phrase "just a second", which I've heard more in NY than "just
- a minute" which is seemingly more prevalent elsewhere. I've also heard
- "New York minute" defined as the amount of time which passes between the
- time a traffic light turns green and the time the guy behind you blows his
- horn.
-
- Larry Smith (smith@ctron.com) No, I don't speak for Cabletron.
- -------------------------------------------------------------
- Daily I'd go over to Congress - that grand old benevolent national asylum - and
- report on the inmates there. Never seen a body of men with tongues more handy,
- or information more uncertain. If one of those men had been present when the
- Deity was on the point of saying "Let there be light" we never would've had it.
-