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DAMON_RUNYON

                                             December 21, 2025


                                                    https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Damon_Runyon&oldid=2844604

  He was best known for his short stories celebrating the world
  of Broadway in New York City that grew out of the Prohibition
  era. He spun tales of gamblers, petty thieves, actors and
  gangsters; few of whom go by "square" names, preferring instead
  to be known as "Nathan Detroit", "Big Jule", "Harry the Horse",
  "Good Time Charlie", "Dave the Dude", and so on. These stories
  were written in a very distinctive vernacular style: a mixture        DECADENCE
  of formal speech and colorful slang, always in present tense,
  and always devoid of contractions.

  Here is an example from the story "Tobias the Terrible",
  collected in More than Somewhat (1937):

     If I have all the tears that are shed on Broadway by guys
     in love, I will have enough salt water to start an
     opposition ocean to the Atlantic and Pacific, with enough
     left over to run the Great Salt Lake out of business. But
     I wish to say I never shed any of these tears personally,
     because I am never in love, and furthermore, barring a bad
     break, I never expect to be in love, for the way I look at
     it love is strictly the old phedinkus, and I tell the
     little guy as much.

  The musical Guys and Dolls and the play Little Miss Marker grew
  from his short stories.


              I found that Damon Runyon quote and used it
              as a style example in the wikipedia page--
              I just noticed it's been deleted from the
              latest versions, and so I've resucitated
              it here, with surrounding text mostly
              written by myself, as I remember it.

              I contend that this is the *perfect* Damon
              Runyon quote, it's short and to the point,
              demonstrating the style and *also* the style
              of humor, because it's funny on its own as
              a standalone quote.

                     The fact that it's been deleted I
                     hold up as yet another example of
                     the problems with wikipedia...


The lastest version of the wikipedia page
suggests that Runyon's style was entirely              ARTIFICIAL_SLANG
made-up-- that's a question, I'd say: is it
a *phoney* vernacular, or an exaggeration of         Really, either
an extant vernacular?                                would be
                                                     impressive...
   The question is to what extent are
   Runyon's Broadway stories an authentic
   representation of milieu?




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