Terms Which Have Disappeared

[FedOregon]

Does a well-dressed person still look "snazzy"?

An old boss used to say "spiffy" or "snippy" in the same vein. Previously, I'd only heard snippy used as a way to say short, or rude.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Milquetoast - a wonderful expression that seems all but done for.

Caspar Milquetoast, "The Timid Soul," by H. T. Webster. Pretty much the only thing worth reading in the anemic Herald-Tribune comic section.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Did English-speaking people call condoms really "Johnnys"??

My mother calls them "French Safes."

 

[BlueTrain]

I haven't heard "spiffy" used very often but when I have, it didn't seem 100% honest. In the same way, sometimes people say "peachy" in a way that sounds like they don't really mean it. One boss I used to have ages ago if asked the question about how things were going, he would say instead of "fine," he would say everything was course. Those were some rough days in that company.

 

[Fading Fast]

Caspar Milquetoast, "The Timid Soul," by H. T. Webster. Pretty much the only thing worth reading in the anemic Herald-Tribune comic section.

Only seeing it here, I seem to remember it, but am not sure. Was it still going in the late '60s / 70s? I could also be "remembering" it from all the books and articles I've read on cartoons.

 

[ChiTownScion]

My mother calls them "French Safes."

I've heard of, "French Letters," but those were actually precursors.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Only seeing it here, I seem to remember it, but am not sure. Was it still going in the late '60s / 70s? I could also be "remembering" it from all the books and articles I've read on cartoons.

Webster died in 1952, but he'd left enough of a backlog to keep his cartoons running in the Herald-Tribune until 1953. A hardcover collection of "The Best of H. T. Webster" appeared later that year, and sold quite well, with copies common in libraries and on the second-hand book market.

Webster had several other series besides "The Timid Soul," and some of the titles became catchphrases of the day, especially "Life's Darkest Moment" and "The Thrill That Comes Once In A Lifetime," both of which were single-panel cartoons casting a rose-colored glow over scenes from a late-19th Century childhood. A lot of the "good old days" imagery seen in the Era can be traced to these cartoons. They were pleasant and nostalgic and inoffensive in a way that suited the Herald-Tribune's middle-aged readership.

 

[Fading Fast]

Webster died in 1952, but he'd left enough of a backlog to keep his cartoons running in the Herald-Tribune until 1953. A hardcover collection of "The Best of H. T. Webster" appeared later that year, and sold quite well, with copies common in libraries and on the second-hand book market.

Webster had several other series besides "The Timid Soul," and some of the titles became catchphrases of the day, especially "Life's Darkest Moment" and "The Thrill That Comes Once In A Lifetime," both of which were single-panel cartoons casting a rose-colored glow over scenes from a late-19th Century childhood. A lot of the "good old days" imagery seen in the Era can be traced to these cartoons. They were pleasant and nostalgic and inoffensive in a way that suited the Herald-Tribune's middle-aged readership.

So, clearly, I never saw it as an active strip - must have been in books, etc., as I feel like I've seen it before.

 

[BlueTrain]

Since air-conditioning done went and got invented, nobody sits on their porch like that anymore.

I have only the vaguest memories of some newspaper comic strips from when I was little but I'm sure that's where I saw them. There was one about people on a streetcar that I think was the Toonerville Trolley. The artwork was very similar to the comic strip above. There were a couple of single panel comics that also appeared daily in the local paper that I remember but I don't remember the titles. They seemed more adult oriented. In fact, none of the comics were at all childish.

Some I remember vividly, like Bringing up Father, Mutt & Jeff, Dick Tracy and my favorite, Blondie. I rather identified with Dagwood. It's been a long time since he caught the streetcar to work and took naps in the stockroom. I also liked Gasoline Alley, Moon Mullins and Prince Valiant. All first-class literature.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

Another single-panel comic (with a Sunday strip introduced later) was "Our Boarding House," by a number of artists, which was still running when I was growing up. It featured the iconic Major Hoople, who even got a shout-out in Kerouac's "On the Road."

 

[Fading Fast]

You don't hear "gussied up" meaning "dressed up" or "upscaled" much anymore as in "she got all 'gussied up' for the party."

 

[BlueTrain]

Well, that's because nobody does.

 

[Trenchfriend]

"FÜßE ABTRETEN!!"

"Wipe your feet!!"

 

[LizzieMaine]

Another single-panel comic (with a Sunday strip introduced later) was "Our Boarding House," by a number of artists, which was still running when I was growing up. It featured the iconic Major Hoople, who even got a shout-out in Kerouac's "On the Road."

"Kaff! Awk! Egad!"

 

[LizzieMaine]

Since air-conditioning done went and got invented, nobody sits on their porch like that anymore.

I have only the vaguest memories of some newspaper comic strips from when I was little but I'm sure that's where I saw them. There was one about people on a streetcar that I think was the Toonerville Trolley. The artwork was very similar to the comic strip above. There were a couple of single panel comics that also appeared daily in the local paper that I remember but I don't remember the titles. They seemed more adult oriented. In fact, none of the comics were at all childish.

Some I remember vividly, like Bringing up Father, Mutt & Jeff, Dick Tracy and my favorite, Blondie. I rather identified with Dagwood. It's been a long time since he caught the streetcar to work and took naps in the stockroom. I also liked Gasoline Alley, Moon Mullins and Prince Valiant. All first-class literature.

"Gasoline Alley" still exists, and the New York Daily News, which has run it since 1919, still runs it -- but as a sad travesty of itself because the syndicate won't allow the oldest characters to die with dignity. Uncle Walt is approaching 120 years old, is the last surviving veteran of WWI, and is the oldest man in America, and sits around the house mumbling nonsense to his housekeeper. And Skeezix will turn 96 next month and has become a bumbling old fool who's constantly being pushed around by obnoxious store clerks. Bah.

But you can read the original Alley in all its glory in a series of fine reprint books put out by a company in Montreal called "Drawn & Quarterly." They've been reprinting the entire strip from the beginning, two years per volume, and are now up to 1931-32, just as Skeezix is entering his pre-teen years and Walt is settling into middle age. Once you start reading these strips, it's impossible to put them down -- it's like the comic-strip version of "The Forsyte Saga." I recommend them heartily to anyone who wants to know what the American comic strip was once capable of doing.

 

[BlueTrain]

Well, America has changed and it would be hard to keep a strip going without something changing. After all, the artist themselves age and pass away. Dagwood carpools now that the streetcar is gone and presumably so is the bus (a double-decker bus, no less). I don't actually remember the streetcar. His kids grew up but then stopped aging. But think of the challenge of drawing the same thing every day--differently. Sometimes comic strips even point out the odd things in their own strips, like the funny big button in Dagwood's shirt or the way Jeff (of Mutt and Jeff) wore a top hat long after they disappeared from everyday life. Even radio shows would make fun of the fact that it was really just a radio show and not reality, like when one of the characters would spontaneously ask another one what page he was on.

 

[tonyb]

You don't hear "gussied up" meaning "dressed up" or "upscaled" much anymore as in "she got all 'gussied up' for the party."

I guess I'm the oddball here. I use that expression myself, and not "ironically," either.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

And there remains the great mystery of "Dagwood": Just how many puppies does Daisy have?

 

[Fading Fast]

I guess I'm the oddball here. I use that expression myself, and not "ironically," either.

I'm guilty as charged as I only "came up" with the term for this thread when I used it without thought in the "Old Gas Station" thread earlier today.

I think FL members are not representative of the population at large.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And there remains the great mystery of "Dagwood": Just how many puppies does Daisy have?

What's always bothered me about "Blondie" is that Dagwood and Blondie's chairs in the living room face away from each other, so that they never look at each other while they're talking. Maybe that's how they've stayed married for eighty-four years.