Was Al Horowitz a Confederate Sympathizer?

[Quadibloc]

The answer, of course, is no.
But why on Earth would he be suspected of such a thing?
The answer has to do with a very old slang term.
In the online search in which I learned that it was from his
writings that I had first heard that term, I've seen various
theories of it's origin - a Swedish word meaning 'knockout
blow', or a corruption of the word 'doxology'.
The word is 'sockdolager'.
It turns out that word was used in one context that may have
lent it some infamy: within the punch line of a joke in a certain
play... that led to the audience's laughter being loud enough to
conceal the noise of a fatal gunshot.
The play?
'Our American Cousin'.

John Savard

[raylopez99]

Another question was if Paul Morphy was a Confederate sympathizer and whether this caused him to drop out of chess? Read this well researched book (if you can find a copy as it's out of print) "The Chess Players" by the noted writer Keyes.

Good luck!

RL

[MikeMurray]

On Thursday, May 13, 2021 at 8:08:03 AM UTC-7, raylopez99 wrote:

> Another question was if Paul Morphy was a Confederate sympathizer and whether this caused him to drop out of chess? Read this well researched book (if you can find a copy as it's out of print) "The Chess Players" by the noted writer Keyes.
>
> Good luck!
>
> RL

I read that book in high school (and still have it somewhere) but it's fictional, especially the latter part dealing with his Confederate activities and his murdered sweetheart.