[Publib] "Supper club" (research in applied linguistics)

[Fred Beisser]

Having come from Wisconsin along time ago, I was still unable to define 
supper club. So our friend Mr. Google revealed the following:

>
>   Supper club
>
>
>       From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
>
> Jump to: navigation 
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supper_club#column-one>, search 
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supper_club#searchInput>
>
> A supper club is an American 
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_cuisine> dining establishment 
> which provides a supper <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supper> menu of 
> steaks or "surf and turf <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surf_and_turf>" 
> served in a semi-formal setting, which may require a jacket and tie. 
> Supper clubs often serve as both a restaurant and a night club 
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_club>, by offering dancing, music, 
> and other nightclub <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightclub> 
> entertainment after the meal.
>
Read more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supper_club where you will 
learn that they became popular in the 1930s and 1940s and were more 
common in the Upper Midwest states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and 
Michigan, although "supper clubs" can be found throughout the U.S.

Fred Beisser
Trustee
www.elbertcountylibrary.org
Colorado

Joe Schallan wrote:

> For this posting I shall claim a broad interpretation of the "Friday  
> humor" rule, specifically Section 6 Subsection B Paragraph 3, insofar  
> as Saturday can be reasonably and logically annexed by Friday as a  
> day on which to set LJ and Booklist aside for a moment and  
> contemplate life outside the stacks.
>
> In short, there is legal precedent.
>
> You may also figure that Schallan has the day off and is perched at  
> home in front of his PowerBook, coffee at his right hand and opera at  
> his left (It is "Un Ballo in Maschera" at the moment, if you must  
> know), and obviously has abundant goofing-off time on his hands.
>
> You would be correct.
>
> Besides, aren't we librarians supposed to also be scholars,  
> inherently interested in word and language research?  Through this  
> supposition, I also lay claim to topicality.
>
> John Richmond, communicating with me off list, noted that the term  
> "supper club" seems to be a phenomenon of the Upper Midwest, even  
> more specifically of the Upper Mississippi Valley.
>
> My research absolutely supports John's observation.
>
> I called up the business directory portion of the Reference USA  
> database, and asked it to retrieve every business in the U.S. that  
> has the phrase "supper club" as a part of its name.
>
> I found 511 such businesses. A spot check of the results confirmed  
> that these are eating establishments, not some sort of hardware store  
> that supplies heavy implements for beating the evening's meal into  
> submission -- e.g., "Joe's Supper Clubs and Cudgels."
>
> Thirty-eight states had one or more supper clubs.  But Maine,  
> Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky,  
> Mississippi, Utah, Oregon, and Alaska and Hawaii were entirely bereft  
> of supper clubs.  In fact, I found only one lone supper club in  
> Connecticut and one in Massachusetts in all of New England.
>
> Besides New England, the South and West have relatively few supper  
> clubs. Indeed, there was only one in all of New Mexico, Ronnie Lee's  
> Supper Club, improbably located in Taos.  California's 11 supper  
> clubs look promising at first, but that number has to be weighed  
> against the state's population of more than 35 million. In that  
> light, California has a vanishingly small number of supper clubs, far  
> outstripped by sushi bars and restaurants that give you those tiny  
> portions designed by Zen masters and placed on immense, unadorned  
> white plates for $135.
>
> You really have to appreciate the presentation of a single asparagus  
> spear, I guess.
>
> To carry the research further, one should derive a supper-clubs-per- 
> capita figure for each state, but that is beyond the scope my  
> ambition and coffee supply this morning.
>
> In any case, and as you shall see, the raw data confirms John's  
> observation.  And let me tell you this . . . Wisconsin is the  
> absolute *epicenter* of supper clubs. I found 222 establishments in  
> that state (43 percent of the U.S. total ! ! ).
>
> And attention, Michael Golrick, those 222 include the Fanny Hill  
> Supper Club, on Crescent Avenue in your very own Eau Claire.
>
> For the morbidly curious, here is the complete breakdown of supper  
> clubs, by state:
>
> Wisconsin - 222
> Minnesota - 68
> Illinois - 28
> Iowa - 21
> Montana - 13
> Michigan - 12
> South Dakota and Calif. - 11
> North Dakota and Wyoming - 10
> Kansas and Oklahoma - 9
> Ohio, West Virginia, and Nevada - 6
> Missouri, New York, Florida, Georgia, Texas, and Colorado - 5
> Alabama, Arkansas, and North Carolina - 4
> Tennessee, Indiana, Arizona, Idaho, and Washington - 3
> Pennsylvania, Virginia, and South Carolina - 2
> Neb., New Jersey, Conn., Mass., Louisiana, and New Mex. - 1
>
> Note that the top four states -- all Upper Midwest/Upper Mississippi  
> Valley ones -- account for 66 percent (two thirds!) of supper clubs.
>
> BTW, I didn't know that No. 5 Montana was in the Midwest (its total  
> of 13 supper clubs made even more impressive when its small  
> population is taken into account).
>
> My research shows that the term "supper club" is most heavily used in  
> Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, and Iowa. And that there are vast  
> stretches of the United States in which use of the term would bring  
> only a quizzical look. So just what, in the upper Midwestern mind,  
> distinguishes a "supper club" from a plain old restaurant?
>
> And here I am at a loss, living as I do in the middle of an area  
> deprived of supper clubs.  I cannot just jump into my car and head up  
> US 61 into upper Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota in the name of  
> philological research if not tax deductions for the food and drink I  
> would be forced to consume to further etymological knowledge.
>
> So, I appeal to Publibbers from the Quad Cities to Eau Claire: What  
> is it that makes it a "supper club"?  My impression is hearty fare  
> (steak, pork, catfish), "fanciness" (table linens and possibly a  
> dress code though not too stringent a one), and the possibility of  
> live entertainment, along with the availability of alcohol, of course.
>
> The Wikipedists (ever a good starting point for items of popular  
> culture -- i.e., you won't find "supper club" in the Britannica) have  
> this to say:
>
> "A supper club is an American dining establishment which provides a  
> supper menu of steaks or 'surf and turf' served in a semi-formal  
> setting, which may require a jacket and tie. Supper clubs often serve  
> as both a restaurant and a night club, by offering dancing, music,  
> and other nightclub entertainment after the meal . . . . Supper clubs  
> were first popularized in the 1930s and 1940s. They are more common  
> in the Upper Midwest states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and  Michigan . . 
> . "
>
> Perhaps Michael will want to find a supper club for the next Publib  
> gathering?
>
> And I'd really like a little more detail about the Fanny Hill Supper  
> Club in Eau Claire, given that its name is an allusion to a character  
> in a novel whose author was prosecuted for "corrupting the King's  
> subjects" (Fanny Hill - Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, by John  
> Cleland, published in two installments, 1748-9).  This was, of  
> course, long before there was an ALA OIF at hand to lend Mr. Cleland  
> a hand.
>
> Now, over on my left Renato has just stabbed Riccardo in the middle  
> of the big masked ball, because Riccardo, Renato's best friend, has  
> cheated with Renato's wife Amelia, except that Riccardo really hasn't  
> and Renato has acted out of paranoia. Except that it wasn't *total*  
> paranoia, because Riccardo *did* find himself powerfully attracted to  
> Amelia, though he did the right thing and restrained himself, so  
> nothing of a physical nature actually ever happened. In any case,  
> Riccardo will soon expire, but not without first singing  
> magnificently for twenty minutes (you try hitting those high notes  
> when *you* have fatal knife wounds), forgiving his friend Renato for  
> his misdeed, expressing his love for his subjects, etc.  I need to  
> attend to that.
>
> You know, if I were one of those avant-garde opera directors, I could  
> set "Un Ballo in Maschera" in a supper club.  In Wisconsin.  Which  
> isn't any stranger than Verdi setting the original in Boston.
>
> Which he did because the state censors demanded that he alter the  
> characters and setting of his opera before they would allow it to be  
> produced.
>
> Which brings us back full circle to one of the things we librarians  
> do -- resist the censors.
>
> Yours on a Saturday finding itself appropriated by Friday,
>
> Joe Schallan
> Phoenix
>
> [Tags: supper clubs, philology, business directories, statistical  
> analysis, applied linguistics, the Midwest, Upper Mississippi Valley,  
> Eau Claire WI, Highway 61 Revisited, the Midwestern mind, steak,  
> pork, catfish, microscopic portions, asparagus, slams on California,  
> Fanny Hill, opera, paranoia, murder, forgiveness, censorship]
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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