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In cricket, a "blonger" is a slang term for a "duck."
Back in Wisconsin, family members pronounce "Belonger" as if it were spelled "Belongee".
Blonger is a corruption of Belonger, which is itself a corruption of the French surname Bélanger. Sourcebooks tell us this name derives from an Old French given name, Berenger, which was popularized by the romances of Charlemagne.
In some parts of the world, especially the island countries of the Caribbean, a "belonger" is a citizen, i.e., one who belongs.
In the movie The Sting, Hooker and Gondorff employ the wire con, a fake betting parlor scheme, in a fairly accurate representation of the swindle often used by the Blonger gang in Denver. It was the arrest of Lou Blonger and his minions in 1922 that shone a bright light on this and similar cons like the rag and payoff, which were vividly described in newspapers across the country.
In the movie Tombstone, at the close of the infamous Vendetta ride, Wyatt, Doc and the others have killed all the cow-boys, and relieved Ike Clanton of his red sash — and then what? A few years later, Doc is dying in a sanitarium. So what happened to Sheriff Behan's posse chasing Earp across Arizona? Where did Wyatt go?
After crossing into New Mexico and out of Behan's reach, and a short stay in Silver City, the Earp posse made their way to Albuquerque where Sam was marshal, and Lou his deputy, of course, where they would lay low under the Blongers' watchful eye for over a week, till cooler heads prevailed.
Although six Blonger/Belonger brothers lived to adulthood, the direct male line is now extinct. The last son to bear the name, John Belonger of Shullsburg, Wis., died childless in 1949. There are other Belonger families in the U.S., but the Blongers were unique — there are none listed in any U.S. phone book.
Don't blame the Blonger Bros. if you are Spam-averse. Some of your junk e-mail undoubtedly comes from blongers.com. We don't know where they got their name and we disavow any knowledge of their actions.
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