[PW] Sad Gotan

[Reed C Bowman]

John P. Dyson wrote:

>Quoting "Proctor, Drew" <DProctor at columbiabasin.edu>:
>
>  
>
>>I received the following reference question last week.  All four of
>>us here are stumped; does anyone have any ideas?
>>
>><I have been casually looking for the name Sad Gotan in
>>literature/plays for about 5 years.  I have asked bookstore clerks,
>>librarians, students, and people with a love of literature.  I have
>>searched the web using several different search engines.  Yesterday,
>>the Battelle and WSU-Tri Cities reference librarians attempted to
>>help me on a lark:)  Alas.  No Sad Gotan.
>>
>>Could you help me?  I think Sad Gotan is a character in a
>>book/play/short story/poem (?) that was written by the author that
>>wrote Catcher in the Rye.  I'd like to read the document.>
>>    
>>
>
>
>This may be unrelated, but in the Argentine street and underworld slang 
>known as lunfardo, syllables are often reversed in wordplay. Gotan is a 
>common way to refer to the tango, just as feca con chele is café con 
>leche. Sad Gotan is a pun in two languages and a redundancy to boot. 
>What that may have to do with Salinger is anyone's guess.
>  
>
Um, it's also a sort-of spoonerism of "God Satan"

Nothing else to add here, move along.

RCB