Terms Which Have Disappeared

[ChiTownScion]

It never occurred to me that a TV show or movie should resemble real life, let alone my life. Those shows took place in some magic land of imagination. The difference between a Twilight Zone episode and Leave It To Beaver was one of degree. Both took place in worlds of their own. Neither resembled the world I lived in. That is what I liked about them. If I had seen a show that reminded me of my life I would have immediately turned it off. Why would I watch some boring show when I could turn around and have the real thing?

That folded into "children's literature" for me as well. My dad tried to get me to read the Hardy Boys books, but I could never wrap my mind around the fact that they didn't live in a "real" city in a "real" state. I was about nine at the time, and it more or less set a tone for life. There had to be a nexus to reality. It was about this time that I snuck off to a public library and started reading Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. My imagination was stoked as a kid when I read about developing technologies, not unrealistic fiction. To this day I cannot deal extensively with Tolkien's little men with furry feet and such: if it has to be fiction, make it Mailer, Steinbeck, or even Vonnegut.

 

[2jakes]

That folded into "children's literature" for me as well. My dad tried to get me to read the Hardy Boys books, but I could never wrap my mind around the fact that they didn't live in a "real" city in a "real" state. I was about nine at the time, and it more or less set a tone for life. There had to be a nexus to reality. It was about this time that I snuck off to a public library and started reading Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. My imagination was stoked as a kid when I read about developing technologies, not unrealistic fiction. To this day I cannot deal extensively with Tolkien's little men with furry feet and such: if it has to be fiction, make it Mailer, Steinbeck, or even Vonnegut.

Hooray for the public library !
My first stop Saturday mornings.
Then proceed to Coney Island Hotdog diner.
Sometimes a movie matinee in the afternoons.
Life was grand !

 

[LizzieMaine]

That folded into "children's literature" for me as well. My dad tried to get me to read the Hardy Boys books, but I could never wrap my mind around the fact that they didn't live in a "real" city in a "real" state. I was about nine at the time, and it more or less set a tone for life. There had to be a nexus to reality. It was about this time that I snuck off to a public library and started reading Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. My imagination was stoked as a kid when I read about developing technologies, not unrealistic fiction. To this day I cannot deal extensively with Tolkien's little men with furry feet and such: if it has to be fiction, make it Mailer, Steinbeck, or even Vonnegut.

I was never a Tolkein fan either -- I read Lord of the Rings at the insistence of a high school friend, but it did absolutely nothing for me. It's not that I dislike fantasy or adventure stories -- I always liked "Star Trek" for its allegorical nature, and I like, and still like, "Doctor Who" for its essential absurdity and its awareness that what it does is, in fact, ridiculous -- but Tolkein and his fans took themselves way, way too seriously for me.

 

[Stanley Doble]

I used to devour books, one a day sometimes more. Lord of the Rings was the first book I picked up and couldn't read, or didn't want to read. And I was a science fiction fan at the time. I thought 'I will read this later'. That was 1968 and I still haven't read it.

 

[TimeWarpWife]

I have a stack of them, which I use to keep inventory at work. I call them my I-Pad, but the kids don't get the joke.

If I may be so nosy, where do you get your Big Chief tablets? Amazon has them, but $5 + S&H seems a bit expensive for only 48 sheets of paper.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I got mine years ago from a school-supply wholesale company. I had a whole case of them, 60 pages each, and am now down to the last half-dozen.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

Does anybody still use the term "the birds and the bees" for explaining to innocent kids (hah!) what sex is all about? I never had any idea how that expression came about until I read the lyrics to the impossibly beautiful 19th century folk song "Near the Lake Where Droop'd the Willow," familiar to most of us from Copeland's "Ämerican Folk Song Suite," which contains the passage:

Rock and tree and flowing water,
Long time ago,
Bird and bee and blossom taught her
Love's spell to know

Does anyone know of any earlier use of the expression? I don't have a specific date for the song, but it was from the Stephen Foster minstrel-show era.

 

[Bushman]

Honestly, I don't think I've heard anybody use the phrase "fiddlesticks" since I was a child. And even then, I've only ever heard it used when we applied it as an affectionate nickname for a beloved camp counselor.

 

[DNO]

I was absolutely delighted to see the term "in cahoots" in a front page headline in the Toronto Star the other day. "Cops In Cahoots With Tow Truck Driver." Great stuff...could have been straight out of a newspaper from the thirties!

 

[ChiTownScion]

Honestly, I don't think I've heard anybody use the phrase "fiddlesticks" since I was a child. And even then, I've only ever heard it used when we applied it as an affectionate nickname for a beloved camp counselor.

It gets employed between my wife and myself when one states to the other, "Curse like you're in a Walt Disney movie!"

Standard replies include:

"Golly gee!"
"Oh, fiddlesticks!"
"Aw, shucks!"
"Hot dog!"

You get the picture.

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Fiddlesticks" is also the title of one of Harry Langdon's best silent shorts, in which the hapless little twerp appears as a street musician who "entertains" the public with an enormous bass viol. I can't hear the word without thinking of poor Harry running away from the cop while struggling to carry his instrument.

As far as minced swearing is concerned, "piffle," "pish-tosh," and "fum-a-diddles" are also in the running. As is "Gosh All Fishhooks," the favorite oath of Jack Armstrong The All American Boy's inefficacious cousin Billy. And Sade Gook's "Awwwww, ish..."

 

[tonyb]

I was absolutely delighted to see the term "in cahoots" in a front page headline in the Toronto Star the other day. "Cops In Cahoots With Tow Truck Driver." Great stuff...could have been straight out of a newspaper from the thirties!

It was in common usage amongst my people in my early years. I still use it myself, and I suspect that younger people who hear me use it deduce its meaning from context. I don't recall ever being asked its definition.

 

[scottyrocks]

I wasn't deadly serious about it, but at age 12-13, I really did wish that I had Barbara Eden living in a bottle on my bedroom dresser ("I Dream of Jeannie"). Healthy 60's American boy fantasy, I'm sure.

Absolutely! And even if couldn't have the Jeannie, I did get a hold of 'her' bottle, which was based on a special Christmas 1964 Jim Beam liquor decanter. They can be found on various places around the internet, either painted or original dark green glass, even if a young Ms. Eden cannot.

 

[2jakes]

Honestly, I don't think I've heard anybody use the phrase "fiddlesticks" since I was a child. And even then, I've only ever heard it used when we applied it as an affectionate nickname for a beloved camp counselor.

I use the word, “balderdash” with friends in light situations in jest.
I keep my mouth shut in a serious situation with enemies.
My silence speaks volumes & usually resolves the situation.

 

[Jayessgee]

Ohhh pshaw!
Now that's slicker than owl -------- on a brass door knob! "Cold enough to freeze the balls of a brass monkey" (and no, it has no referent to a primate's testicles.)

No HERE's a little bit of esoterica- the word SHRAPNEL"- in it's proper use.
Long misuse has rendered the term to mean any flying debris from an explosion but, that is not it's original usage. The Shrapnel shell concept was first established in 1784 by a British officer of that name. In 1803, it was developed into what was more commonly called "spherical case"- a hollow iron ball filled with gun powder and musket balls or larger iron balls depending on the size of the shell. (Hollow balls merely having a bursting charge was spherical shell" referring to it's hollow shape.) These shells were detonated by a time fuse. The drawback to these was that they tumbled all about in flight and had to be detonated by a time fuse. This caused the balls and shell fragments to fly outward in 360 degrees meaning that nearly half your shot went flying up into the air uselessly.
The development of rifled artillery and conical shells the maintained their directional attitude not only permitted of point detonating fuses but the final perfection of the "shrapnel shell." This was first conceived of in 1864 by another Brit officer name of Boxer (as in boxer primed cartridge) in 1864. the final evolution involved packing the balls into the nose of the shell with the bursting charge in the back. Detonated by a time fuse, the bursting charge slammed all the balls outward and down the flight path of the shell where they would do the most good (or harm depending on your point of view.)
In closing, the balls hurled outward from the "shrapnel shell" were "shrapnel" and fragments from a bursting case were just that, 'shell fragments' and properly were called that as late as my experience in the artillery entering into the 1980s.

 

[Jayessgee]

I recall reading that a full many of commonly used expressions have their origins in naval use. Things like a "square meal," Over reach, by and by pooped and on and on. In fact, I would say the list is too long for me to post here but, I found a site that lists many of them (some 50 in fact). Here is a link to it... http://www.fortogden.com/nauticalterms.html
I'm su re many of these have been listed all ready but I wonder how many have been connected to their nautical origins? That's why I am posting this here.

 

[Stanley Doble]

They don't defrost things anymore. Now they are rethermalized. Just learned this from a friend in the fast food industry.

 

[LizzieMaine]

A common parental threat when I was small was "I'll knock you Eastport to Block Island!" This derived from the way the maritime weather forecast was given on the radio every morning and evening -- "Eastport to Block Island and up to 25 miles offshore," and when they changed in the '80s to "Eastport to the Merrimack River," the old threat fell by the wayside. Too many syllables in the new version.

 

[Stearmen]

Keeping with Lizzie's post, we used to hear, I'll knock you into next Sunday! Also, into next week, or the middle of next week.

 

[Stanley Doble]

I'll give you a backhander and you'll be pinched for speeding in China. A favorite of the old man's.