From: Tim May <tcmay@got.net>
Date: Wed, 4 Feb 1998 01:23:59 +0800
To: "Michael H. Warfield" <mhw@wittsend.com>
Subject: UrsinePunks  (Re: County Mounties Spit on the 4th Amendment)
In-Reply-To: <695e7d4cd89037ab6c4e383c56f8fa6b@privacynb.ml.org>
Message-ID: <v03102800b0fcfe020bd6@[207.167.93.63]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



At 6:25 AM -0800 2/3/98, Michael H. Warfield wrote:

>"Supertroupers" refers to State Patrol.  The term "Smokie" (coined from
>the movie Smokie and the Bandit) refers to all police.

Nope, not coined from the movie.

Just the reverse.

Highway cops were called "smokies" (or "smokeys") when I was growing up in
Virginia in the 60s, long before the movie.

I haven't checked the derivation, but had always assumed it came from the
Smokey the Bear figure, who wore a tall, broad-brimmed hat (also known as a
campaign hat). The hat worn by many state highway patrols. Ergo, "smokeys."

(I used to see the _real_ Smokey the Bear at the Washington Zoo. I think he
died of old age in the 1970s.)

(A URL with a few details is
http://www.4j.lane.edu/websites/roosevelt/Connections/smokey.html)


--Tim May, posting from the Bear State

"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
ComSec 3DES:   408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^3,021,377   | black markets, collapse of governments.