Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant passages that can help answer the question.
Query: Why is New York known as the Big Apple?
Although the history of Big Apple was once thought a mystery,[1] a clearer picture of the term's history has emerged due to the work of amateur etymologist Barry Popik,[2] and Gerald Cohen of Missouri University of Science and Technology.[3] A number of false theories had previously existed,[4] including a claim that the term derived from a woman named Eve who ran a brothel in the city.[5] This was subsequently exposed as a hoax.[6][7]
"Strawberry Shortcake in Big Apple City" chronicles Strawberry Shortcake's trip to Big Apple City (an obvious parallel to New York City, also known as the "Big Apple"), so she can compete in a baking contest at "the little theater off Times Pear" (referencing Times Square). Strawberry's journey, however, is in jeopardy due to the constant interference of the Peculiar Purple Pieman of Porcupine Peak, who is her only competition in the bake-off. The Pieman counts on his kohlrabi cookies and a little trickery to beat Strawberry and her famous shortcake. A "Spinach Village" is also mentioned, a reference to Greenwich Village.
Rotten Apple is the second studio album by G-Unit rapper Lloyd Banks, released October 10, 2006 on G-Unit Records and Interscope Records. The title of the album is a play on the New York City nickname, "The Big Apple". The album cover also resembles the cover of the film, "King of New York".
The Big Apple Circus is a circus based in New York City. Opened in 1977, later becoming a nonprofit organization, it became a tourist attraction. The circus has been known for its community outreach programs, including Clown Care, as well as its humane treatment of animals. Big Apple Circus filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November 2016 and exited bankruptcy in February 2017 after its assets were bought by Compass Partners. The Circus was renewed in October 2017 for its 40th anniversary season. 
Fitz Gerald reportedly first heard "The Big Apple" used to describe New York's racetracks by two African American stable hands at the famed New Orleans Fair Grounds.[13] Evidence can also be found in the Chicago Defender, an African-American newspaper that had a national circulation. Writing for the Defender on September 16, 1922, “Ragtime” Billy Tucker used the name "big apple" to refer to New York in a non-horse-racing context:
The city was founded by settlers from the New England Emigrant Aid Company as a Free-State town in the 1850s, during the Bleeding Kansas era. Nicknamed "The Little Apple" as a play on New York City's "Big Apple", Manhattan is best known as the home of Kansas State University and has a distinct college town atmosphere.
The Big Apple Chorus is a barbershop chorus based in Manhattan, New York. The chorus, directed by Jack Pinto, was founded in 1983 and has close to 100 members. The Big Apple Chorus has competed in the Barbershop Harmony Society's international chorus competition, with a best finish of 2nd in 1987.
The earliest known usage of 'big apple' appears in the book The Wayfarer in New York (1909), in which author Edward S. Martin writes:
The Big Apple Comic Con is a New York City comic book convention, the longest-running comic book/speculative fiction/pop culture convention in New York City. It was started by retailer Michael "Mike Carbo" Carbonaro in March 1996 in the basement of the St. Paul the Apostle Church. A location that a competing show promotor Sunrise Productions Scooty O'Donnell and Partner Richard Ritz Whom Held The New York Horror-Fi Con there on October 4, 1997. During its heyday from 2001–2008, the Big Apple Comic Con often featured multiple shows per year, with a large three-day "national" convention held in November, usually held at the Penn Plaza Pavilion. The show was owned by Wizard Entertainment from 2009 to 2013, but is now back in the hands of Carbonaro.
The Big Apple was popularized as a name for New York City by John J. Fitz Gerald in a number of horse-racing articles for the New York Morning Telegraph in the 1920s. The earliest of these was a casual reference on 3rd May, 1921:
Big Apple Rappin': The Early Days of Hip-Hop Culture in New York City 1979–1982 is a compilation released on Soul Jazz Records. As the title suggests, it contains songs by various artists from the early days of New York hip hop.
In the fall of 1937, four couples from Whitey's Lindy Hoppers, a Lindy Hop performance group based at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem, New York, traveled to Hollywood, California, to perform a Lindy Hop sequence for a Judy Garland movie called "Everybody Sing" (1938). Soon after arriving in California, Herbert "Whitey" White, the manager for the group, sent a telegram to Frankie Manning, the lead dancer for the group, about the new dance craze in New York City called the Big Apple. Manning had never seen the dance before but based on the description of the dance in the telegram, he choreographed a Big Apple routine for the group. Since the dance was based on combining jazz steps that the Lindy hoppers were already familiar with, such as Truckin', the Suzie-Q, and Boogies, the group quickly learned the new steps. They performed their Big Apple routine for "Everybody Sing", but the dance scene was eventually cut due to a dispute between the director and Whitey over the dance group's not receiving a break in the filming schedule.
The New York Derby is the second leg of the "Big Apple Triple," a grouping created in 1999 consisting of three races at three different racetracks in New York state and restricted to three-year-olds bred in New York state. A horse who wins all three of the Big Apple Triple wins the purse total of $400,000 plus a $250,000 bonus. The first leg is the Mike Lee Stakes run at Belmont Park, and the third leg is the Albany Stakes at Saratoga Race Course.
The Big Apple. The dream of every lad that ever threw a leg over a thoroughbred and the goal of all horsemen. There's only one Big Apple. That's New York.[12]
The Home Run Apple was originally installed at Shea Stadium in 1980 as a way to improve the atmosphere at New York Mets games, and an apple was chosen as a play on New York City's nickname of the "Big Apple". When it was first constructed, it was made of fiberboard and came out of a top hat with the slogan "Mets Magic" (this was replaced a few years later with the words "Home Run"). However, the Mets won only 67 games during the 1980 season and the Home Run Apple became known as "Harazin's folly". Often the Apple would get stuck, which necessitated an electrician to be sent to repair it. Over time the Apple became misshapen (due to periodic harsh weather conditions) and was hard to maintain, with a Mets executive stating, "It was just totally fabricated out of plaster layered on top of a metal screen with a wood frame inside".
Some claim that New York City's nickname, the Big Apple, came from the dance. However, that theory has been discredited (see The Nickname of New York).
Kansas is apt to see in New York a greedy city.... It inclines to think that the big apple gets a disproportionate share of the national sap.[8][9]
In the early 1970s, however, the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau (now NYC & Company, New York City's official marketing and tourism organization) began to promote the city's "Big Apple" nickname[21] under the leadership of its president, Charles Gillett.[22] It has remained popular since then.[23]
During the summer of 1937, the students from the University of South Carolina started dancing the Big Apple at the Pavilion in Myrtle Beach. Betty Wood (née Henderson), a dancer who helped revive the Big Apple in the 1990s, first saw the dance there, and six months later she won a dance contest and become nicknamed "Big Apple Betty." The news of the new dance craze spread to New York, and a New York talent agent, Gae Foster, traveled to the Carolinas to audition dancers for a show at the Roxy Theater, the world's second-largest theater at that time. Eight couples were chosen for the show, including Wood, Spivey, and Davis, to perform the Big Apple during a three-week engagement that began on September 3, 1937. They performed six shows a day to sold-out audiences and greatly contributed to the dance's popularity. After the engagement at the Roxy, the group became known as "Billy Spivey's Big Apple Dancers" and toured the country for six months.
N.Y.C. The Big Apple (also known as New York City) is an action game written by Russ Segal for the Atari 8-bit family and published by Synapse Software in 1984. Segal previously wrote "Picnic Paranoia" for Synapse. "New York City" was ported to the Commodore 64 by Greg Nelson.
By 2011, Reed Exhibitions' New York Comic Con, held annually at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, had become the dominant New York City-area comic convention, and was taking away from the appeal of the Big Apple Comic Con. Wizard sat out 2012 and held a new "Wizard World New York City Experience" show on June 28–30, 2013.
On March 21, 2017, Big Apple Circus announced that renowned acrobat Nik Wallenda will be the headline act in the 40th anniversary season at Lincoln Center's Damrosch Park in New York City from October 26, 2017 to January 7, 2018. Additionally, the circus announced that following the New York performances, a national tour will take place.
Big Apple Comix is an early independent comic book published by Flo Steinberg in 1975. A historically important link between underground comix and what would later be called alternative comics, this 36-page, 6" × 9" hybrid with glossy color covers and black-and-white interiors contains 11 sometimes sexually frank stories by such mainstream creators as Neal Adams, Archie Goodwin, Denny O'Neil, Herb Trimpe, Al Williamson, and Wally Wood. Most of its stories revolve around New York City (colloquially known as "The Big Apple") during a particularly low ebb in the city's finances, crime situation, race relations, and infrastructure.
The Mike Lee Stakes is the first leg of the "Big Apple Triple," a grouping of three races in New York state for New York breds. A horse who wins all three of the Big Apple Triple wins the purse total of $400,000 plus a $250,000 bonus. The second leg is the New York Derby held at Finger Lakes Racetrack and the third leg is the Albany Stakes at the Saratoga Race Course. The series began in 1999.
Michael Carbonaro regained the Big Apple Comic Con brand in 2014 and held the "20th Anniversary Return of the Big Apple Convention" on March 7, 2015, moving the show to a larger and more accessible space Penn Plaza Pavilion. He completely revamped and expanded the show with new management and a commitment to creating a non-corporate comic book convention that reflects the diversity and interests of the New York Community. 