First, I stumbled on a reference in Hammett's "Red Harvest"
that confuses
me. When the Op is questioning Captain Noonan about the men
killed in the
shootout between Reno Starkey and Lew Yard's men, Noonan
tells him, "[It
was] A pair of Johnson-brothers named Blackie Whalen and Put
Collings that
only got out on bail around five yesterday, and Dutch Jake
Wahl, a
guerilla." (It's p. 96 in the collected novels.)
Does anyone have any idea what "Johnson-brothers" means in
this context?
If so, any idea about the derivation of it?
Second, I've been having a helluva time with my postings
lately. Two
times ago took more than a week to post. The last one (a
congratulations
to Bill on maintaining such a fine list) seems never to have
made it at all.
Am I doing something wrong, (subscribing just to the digest?
sending to
the wrong return address?) or does the list-serv just not
like my face?
Thanks to all of you for maintaining such a strong
discussion. I've
enjoyed listening in, even if I haven't had much luck talking
back.
--Joe Kraus
Northwestern University
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