Terms Which Have Disappeared

[LizzieMaine]

There is a movie "The Solid Gold Cadillac" from 1956 in which Paul Douglas plays a CEO who takes a job managing some big project or group in the Pentagon for, if memory serves (and I might be wrong on this), $1 a year. Since that was 1956 (albeit a Hollywood movie), I wonder if dollar-a-year men were part of the WWII effort. My money is on LizzieMaine having some insight into this one.

"Dollar a Year Men" were common during the second war -- the program started in 1940 when President Roosevelt appointed William Knudsen of General Motors as the head of the Office of Production Management. Knudsen remained a "Dollar a Year Man" until 1942, when he was commissioned a Lieutenant General in the Army.

"Dollar a Year" is misleading -- while the executives who participated in the program received the symbolic dollar-a-year for their government work, most of them also remained on the payrolls of their civilian jobs, where they continued to earn substantially more than a dollar a year. Most weren't making a substantial financial sacrifice by participating in the program. Knudsen himself did step down from his post at General Motors, but he continued to realize a nice income for himself from his ownership of GM stock.

General Motors board chairman Alfred Sloan, who hated the ground FDR rolled on, refused to give Knudsen his old job back after the war.

 

[Stearmen]

That Joker sure could jink, never could get a bead on him!

 

[Fading Fast]

"Dollar a Year Men" were common during the second war -- the program started in 1940 when President Roosevelt appointed William Knudsen of General Motors as the head of the Office of Production Management. Knudsen remained a "Dollar a Year Man" until 1942, when he was commissioned a Lieutenant General in the Army.

"Dollar a Year" is misleading -- while the executives who participated in the program received the symbolic dollar-a-year for their government work, most of them also remained on the payrolls of their civilian jobs, where they continued to earn substantially more than a dollar a year. Most weren't making a substantial financial sacrifice by participating in the program. Knudsen himself did step down from his post at General Motors, but he continued to realize a nice income for himself from his ownership of GM stock.

General Motors board chairman Alfred Sloan, who hated the ground FDR rolled on, refused to give Knudsen his old job back after the war.

Lizzie, as always, thank you - the scope and depth of your knowledge is impressive.

 

[skydog757]

Three other phrases I haven't heard lately are:

"I'll darken his daylights!" (Give him black eyes.)

"He beat the living tar out of that guy." (Administered a good thrashing.)

"Since Hector was a pup." (A long time ago.)

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

Here's one from the Roaring Twenties, "the cat's pyjamas".

And here's another from my grandfather. When describing distances of an intermediate magnitude (more than few feet or yards, but less than a mile, say from his house to his barn), he would specify his estimation in "rods". But for the fact that the notebooks they gave us in elementary school had a back cover printed with all sorts of useful facts including weights and measures, I would have been clueless. No one else in my daily experience ever described a distance in rods. Let me Google to see if I remember correctly ... Well, I remembered 15 feet, but the actual measure is 16 1/2 feet.

 

[Stanley Doble]

Rods are more a measurement used by farmers but you are right, all the people I know (knew) who used the rod as a measurement, were born at least 100 years ago.

But then, Canada has officially been on the metric system since 1970.

 

[dh66]

Some one behaving like an intelligent equine being called a "wiseacre".

Sent from my SGH-T959V using Tapatalk 2

 

[rjb1]

Speaking of terms which have disappeared - "rod" meant "gun" back in the Golden Age. (Paul Muni, when he found himself unexpectedly "covered": "I didn't know you were bringin' a rod.")

 

[skydog757]

Some one behaving like an intelligent equine being called a "wiseacre".

Sent from my SGH-T959V using Tapatalk 2

Also said to be "cracking wise".

 

[HudsonHawk]

Here's one from the Roaring Twenties, "the cat's pyjamas".

And here's another from my grandfather. When describing distances of an intermediate magnitude (more than few feet or yards, but less than a mile, say from his house to his barn), he would specify his estimation in "rods". But for the fact that the notebooks they gave us in elementary school had a back cover printed with all sorts of useful facts including weights and measures, I would have been clueless. No one else in my daily experience ever described a distance in rods. Let me Google to see if I remember correctly ... Well, I remembered 15 feet, but the actual measure is 16 1/2 feet.

I have heard folks from a certain geographic region use the word "farsee" when referring to distance. It means about as far as you can see. How far is it? "About three farsees". I don't know the exact distance, but it's more than a "possum toss".

 

[Stearmen]

Going south faster than Sherman through Georgia.

 

[buelligan]

I have not had time to read through all of these posts but how about some simple ones like "please" and "thank you" and my personal favorite which seems to be missing from every ones vocabulary "excuse me" especially when passing in front of someone looking at something in an isle in a store. I mean is it really that hard to utter a simple "excuse me" as you pass in front of them?

 

[3fingers]

I just thought of one today that my Grandparents used. Breakfast food. This meant cereal, especially cold cereal. I looked up the etymology. It was listed as an Americanism from 1895-1900. I know it was still in at least limited use over 80 years past that but I haven't heard it for years now.

 

[Stanley Doble]

I still call it breakfast food. Didn't know this had fallen out of use.

 

[vitanola]

"Like Grant took Richmond"

"What Sherman said war was"

"The Greeks had a word for it"

"IT"

"Service Station" (several different usages, only one of which is blue)

"Blue" for prurient or "off color" dialogue, lyrics or scenarios.

"Off Color".

 

[sheeplady]

"IT"

"Off Color".

Do you mean Information Technology?

The term off color is still in use around here... I think the last time I heard it was about a week ago.

I still call it breakfast food. Didn't know this had fallen out of use.

Me neither. What else would you call it? Lunch food? "I'll take my lunch food with my lunch meats."

 

[Stearmen]

Do you mean Information Technology?

[video=youtube;Zfa2ecb5lZw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zfa2ecb5lZw[/video]

 

[3fingers]

I still call it breakfast food. Didn't know this had fallen out of use.

Me neither. What else would you call it? Lunch food? "I'll take my lunch food with my lunch meats."

I'm glad to hear it. I haven't heard it used here for many years, and never by anyone outside of my grandparents generation.

 

[vitanola]

Do you mean Information Technology?

No, I mean "It", the "quality in a young woman or man of absolute attraction". As in "She's got "it"'. Kipling first used the term but it was widely popularized by Elinor Glyn in her noveland subsequent screenplay It. As Mrs Glyn said, "With 'It,' you win all men if you are a woman and all women if you are a man. 'It' can be a quality of the mind as well as a physical attraction."

See Clara Bow, widely promoted as "The "IT" Girl".

 

[Stanley Doble]

You mean "sex appeal"?