Very well put, Doc - thanks.  Your writing merits a place of honour among the verborati ;-) If you’ve ever written a book about anything at all, I know I’d enjoy reading it.

Thanks for the compliment, Lionello.  I’m afraid that the closest I’ve come is co-authoring one chapter on the subject of my (now mostly former) research, included in a book of twenty-some other chapters by other scientists working in related areas. It was published by a fairly prestigious publisher, and the one review I saw did mention me by name and described my chapter as “highly informative”, which was extremely gratifying to the old ego, but I’m afraid you would find it excessively technical (and expensive).  Moreover, although the prose is mostly mine, the conventions of academic publishing constrained my style somewhat; I’m sure you’re better off enjoying what you get here gratis.

Dave Wilton - 17 March 2013 07:55 AM

The US equivalent was “Mighty white of you,” which was still to be heard when I was growing up in the ‘50s.

It was still common when I was growing up in the 70s.

“Play the white man”, usually used facetiously and meaning “act decently”, in particular “share with others something that you have of which they would like a part”, was in use when I was at school in the late 1960s.  The expression’s potential for multiple layers of meaning has seen it used as the title of at least two studies of racism in the UK, one in soccer, here, “Offside Racism: Playing the White Man”, and one on fairness and equal opportunities here, “Play the White Man: The Social Construction of Fairness and Competition in Equal Opportunity Policies”. Wikipedia has a go at deconstructing it here.

I’m afraid you would find it excessively technical (and expensive)

I’m sure you’re right on both counts, Doc (I only made it to Page 7 of The Nature of the Chemical Bond --- but if you’d written it, I might have got as far as page 10 ;-). I shall continue to enjoy your, and other posters’ writing, free, gratis and for nothing, here at wordorigins.org.
One way to elude the constraints of academic (or any other) publishing, is to publish one’s work oneself (my great-grandfather and grandfather, who were a great deal better-heeled than I, both did this. So did ElizaD). For impecunious authors, I think the Internet might be a valuable aid. I’m looking into it