Terms Which Have Disappeared

[Inkstainedwretch]

Does anybody still say "It's your nickel"? How many people now would understand the reference?

 

[Upgrade]

Inflation might have something to do with it.

I’ve heard the similar expression “on their dime” more often.

 

[KY Gentleman]

To tell on someone used to be known as “dropping a dime” on them. I can’t say that I’ve heard that phrase in a long time.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

Does anybody still say "It's your nickel"? How many people now would understand the reference?

I think local calls were up to a quarter before cell phones killed phone booths.

It calls to mind a scene from Neuromancer, by William Gibson. It was a dystopian future Sci-Fi novel. The protagonist is walking past a bank of pay phones when they all start to ring one-by-one as he passes them. Oh, well. Even the most imaginative authors aren't clairvoyant.

It also calls to mind a scene from one of the all-time best film noirs, Double Indemnity. There's a scene where Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) is talking with the boyfriend of the daughter of the victim"

D-21 EXT. DIETRICHSON HOME - (NIGHT)

Neff comes out of the house. He closes the front door with
his right hand. His left arm hangs limp. He takes a few steps
down the walk, then suddenly hears somebody approaching. He
moves behind the palm tree near the walk.
==========================
A man comes up the steps towards the front door -- Zachetti.
Just as he reaches the door, Neff calls to him.

NEFF
Hey you. Come here a minute. I said
come here, Zachetti.

Zachetti turns and approaches him slowly.

NEFF
The name is Neff.

ZACHETTI
Yeah? And I still don't like it.
What do you want?

NEFF
Look, kid, I want to give you a
present.

He takes some loose change out of his pocket and holds out a
coin.

NEFF
Here's a nice new nickel.

ZACHETTI
What's the gag?

NEFF
Suppose you go back down the hill to
a drug store and make a phone call.

 

[1mach1]

On that same note, " that's a dime holding up a dollar". I joking use that with my employees. [emoji14]

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-T377A using Tapatalk

 

[Upgrade]

Payphones have alas lost some of their mystique, no less because of their rapid disappearance, because of a small sign indicating “Does not accept incoming calls”.

 

[tonyb]

To tell on someone used to be known as “dropping a dime” on them. I can’t say that I’ve heard that phrase in a long time.

Had a similar discussion just a few days ago, with a contemporary, who also questioned if youngsters would know what was meant by it.

 

[tonyb]

...

I’ve heard the similar expression “on their dime” more often.

Likewise. I use it myself with some frequency, and usually not happily. A couple years back a rookie real estate agent went to school on my dime. A friend of a friend, you see. I was new to town, so I was kinda stuck, but by the time we found a place I knew as much or more about the local real estate market as he did.

 

[KY Gentleman]

Payphones have alas lost some of their mystique, no less because of their rapid disappearance, because of a small sign indicating “Does not accept incoming calls”.

That, and they’re often in such states of disrepair you wouldn’t want to use them.

 

[Zombie_61]

...That, and they’re often in such states of disrepair you wouldn’t want to use them.

This was one of the reasons my oldest and bestest friend finally gave in and got himself a cell phone five or six years ago. Up to that point he didn't mind using payphones, but year after year they got to looking more and more like something you wouldn't want to touch unless you were wearing a biosuit, and even then nine out of ten didn't work. More importantly, his mother had developed some health issues as she grew older, so he needed a more reliable form of communication in case of emergency. Sadly, she died unexpectedly in her sleep two weeks ago at the age of 81.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

One of the most striking and somewhat unsettling sights I encounter these days is what I call "ghost payphones." Particularly in hotels and convention centers, I will sometimes find an alcove that is unused but which clearly once held payphones. The walls are smooth and featureless but the little waist-height ledges that once held phone books are still there. At times, I can almost see ghostly figures of callers dropping in coins, dialing or punching in numbers, talking and trying to ignore the callers next to them.

 

[scottyrocks]

That, and they’re often in such states of disrepair you wouldn’t want to use them.

Up until a couple of years ago there was a TV show called Person of Interest. Pay phones were a significant aspect of the makeup of the show, and there always seemed to be a 'functioning' one, in good shape, when needed. I wonder if those phones (or one phone) were plopped in place for the shoots, or they just went looking for phones that looked like they worked.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

When's the last time you bought something that threatened ro break the bank.

 

[Zombie_61]

Up until a couple of years ago there was a TV show called Person of Interest. Pay phones were a significant aspect of the makeup of the show, and there always seemed to be a 'functioning' one, in good shape, when needed. I wonder if those phones (or one phone) were plopped in place for the shoots, or they just went looking for phones that looked like they worked.

It's likely many of the phones on that show (and others) were nothing more than props that were placed there for filming and removed afterwards. Sound effects such as background noise, the sound of the phone ringing, the conversation, etc., are regularly added in post-production (i.e., after filming is complete).

 

[BobHufford]

Went home for lunch and there was a news story about pay phones (Siri must have been looking over my shoulder on the forum). There are 100K pay phones left in the USA (with 1/5 of them in NYC). Down from two-million in 1999.

 

[Fading Fast]

Went home for lunch and there was a news story about pay phones (Siri must have been looking over my shoulder on the forum). There are 100K pay phones left in the USA (with 1/5 of them in NYC). Down from two-million in 1999.

Coincidentally, NYC has an active, illegal-drug street market.

 

[skydog757]

Expressions that I used to hear quite regularly when I was young when a person came upon something that was confusing or outrageous were "What in Sam Hill . . .", "What the dickens . . ." or "What in tarnation . . ."
". . . is going on here?!!"

I believe that they were all euphemisms for Hell or the Devil and people were too polite or God fearing to actually speak those words. Now "WTF" is ubiquitous.

 

[tonyb]

Expressions that I used to hear quite regularly when I was young when a person came upon something that was confusing or outrageous were "What in Sam Hill . . .", "What the dickens . . ." or "What in tarnation . . ."
". . . is going on here?!!"

I believe that they were all euphemisms for Hell or the Devil and people were too polite or God fearing to actually speak those words. Now "WTF" is ubiquitous.

Yup. Some argue that the considerably freer use of what used to be words and phrases not uttered in polite company -- the F word in particular -- is indicative of a coarsening culture.

But we still have taboo words. They aren't references to "unspeakable" matters of bodily functions or religious sensitivities so much as gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc.

We can all think of many terms that were commonly heard 30, 40, 50 years ago that would earn a stern look at best if said aloud in public these days.

 

[LizzieMaine]

"What the hell" was ubiquitous in my family, but I never heard "WTF" until I went to work in a factory in 1986.

My grandmother, delicate 1911-vintage lady that she was, would dismiss someone she didn't want to hear any more from with "Yahhh, go s**t in your hat and eat it!" That's certainly more piquant than any variation of the sort of "F. off/F. you" stuff you get nowadays.

Scatology, blasphemy, and blasphemous scatology ran rampant at every level of our neighborhood, but with the exception of frequent suggestions that one's mother was a prostitute, for the most part sexual references just weren't used.

 

[tonyb]

...

Scatology, blasphemy, and blasphemous scatology ran rampant at every level of our neighborhood, but with the exception of frequent suggestions that one's mother was a prostitute, for the most part sexual references just weren't used.

The preferred usage among many of my acquaintance (too many, alas) these days is "sex worker." I much prefer "hooker." It has a friendlier ring to it.

"Sex worker" is obviously an attempt to legitimize or at least de-stigmatize the selling of (to employ the language of an old friend of mine who had been a hooker for a time in her earlier years) BJ's and flatbacks.

"Whore" just sounds nasty, which is why it remains among the most commonly heard (along with the abbreviated "ho") terms of disparagement hurled at women in general, not just those "in the trade." It's meant to be hurtful.

From a too-early age (the stories I could tell) I recognized the blatant hypocrisy of those who would avail themselves of a hooker's professional services while disparaging the hookers themselves.