Terms Which Have Disappeared

[Bigger Don]

It would be really interesting to learn the demographic of the readership of "Gasoline Alley."

Hmmm...can't find a "Nielsen" for comic strips that might start giving a clue on that one.

 

[MisterCairo]

Hot damn.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I've been reading it pretty much all my life, and continue to do so out of force of habit -- that and wanting to see what will finally happen when Walt dies -- but what it is today, with all the hyuk-hyuk cornpone Hee Haw humor, is nothing like what it was in its glory days. It's now two writers away from its originator, Frank King, and the quality has been deteriorating steadily because the syndicate won't let the current writer deal realistically with the mortality of the cast. Walt's wife Phyllis died twelve years ago -- and she had to have been over a hundred, since she had been a nurse in World War I -- but they won't let him deal conclusively with Walt. As a result the strip's gotten cartoonier and cartoonier and goofier and goofier, which is a tragedy considering what it once was.

King's run is being slowly reissued in hardcover volumes incorporating two years of daily strips at a time under the title "Walt and Skeezix," and these are well worth reading. The series is now up to 1932, with Skeezix in elementary school, and Walt settling into what appears to be a pudgy middle age, and the rest of the neighborhood just going about its lives along with them. It's like a low-key novel in daily comic strip form, and once you get into the characterizations and accept the conventions of the format, it's absolutely addictive. King was a genius, and while his successors are good cartoonists, they can't sharpen his pencil when it comes to writing.

 

[BlueTrain]

Speaking of brands and brand names, I think that half of them are meaningless. Some still do but others have been reduced to a commodity of their own. They have become a sort of intellectual property. Someone somewhere, probably, owns the rights to the brands of Desoto, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, LaSalle, Plymouth, Rambler, Riley, Singer (the car, not the sewing machine) and so on. I can't really think of any besides car names. At one time, those were all real products made in factory or factories and were altogether different from anyone else's cars. In some cases, however, over time they became less different even though they were made in the same factories they always had been. They became more like other products made by other divisions. It wasn't some natural evolution by any means. They were conscious decisions by businessmen to change their product lines. I have no idea how much difference it made to consumers, meaning I don't know to what extent brand loyalty actually exists. But I'll bet those former Pontiac and Olds dealers are selling Korean cars now.

 

[BlueTrain]

I meant to mention in my previous post that soldiers sometimes pick up local terms which enter into a sort of military vocabulary heard nowhere else. I do recall that American soldiers in Germany had several expressions from German that had been turned into mispronounced slang, but which retained the original meaning and was still mostly intelligible in German. Of course, the same thing occurs with American English terms and expressions as spoken by Americans. We really don't all speak the same language.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

G.I. numbah 10! Cut a chogi to the hooch and tell the dai-wee no more same-same MPC. Now on, greenback!

 

[skydog757]

Slapdash.

 

[Fading Fast]

Slapdash.

I've gotten more than a few blank stares at work when I've used that one. Great term, but I'm afraid you are correct, it seems to be going bye-bye.

 

[skydog757]

Slipshod is synonymous and perhaps a trifle more utilized. It's a shame to see them go as they are both such perfectly descriptive words. They both have been replaced by the universal "This sucks!"

 

[BlueTrain]

I don't imagine anyone says "jerry-built" now. In a way, that's a curious word, given how the "jerry can" was considered superior to the tins formerly used (flimsies), at least by the British. On the other hand, it was too good to use for other purposes. The same thing supposedly happen in Alaska, probably in the late 60s, early 70s. Gasoline was apparently sold in tin cans (as well as direct from the pump, of course). Some white gas is still sold that way in gallon or half-gallon tins. But only from photos, the gas cans were probably 2 1/2 or larger in size. But apparently they went out of use eventually to be replaced by presumably better and possibly even safer gas cans. But they were only good for gasoline.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I still say jerry rigged sometimes.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

I think this is a mispronunciation of "jury rigged," a sailor's term for improvised masts, spars and rigging after storm or battle damage. From French "jour"for "day." In other words, rigging to get you through the day until you could install proper masts and sails. Moby Dick mentions "coming in under a jury-mast."

 

[skydog757]

Same category as "haywire", which still seems to have legs even though it came out of logging camps.

 

[MisterCairo]

I say haywire on occasion.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

"Is it bigger than a breadbox?"

 

[Fading Fast]

Not gone, but used less frequently is the wonderful word thug.

 

[BobHufford]

"Jet Set"

 

[Fading Fast]

"Jet Set"

Good one and dying for a good reason. "Jet Set" reflected the glamour and luxury of mid-century air travel; there's no glamour or luxury left - they are poorly run buses in the sky now.

 

[Upgrade]

It's very rare to hear someone end a meeting or a conversation with "Good morning".

Nowadays, "good morning" seems synonymous with "hello" and "good night" with "goodbye".

 

[LizzieMaine]

Not gone, but used less frequently is the wonderful word thug.

And its cousins, "goon" and "fink."