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Terms Which Have Disappeared

LizzieMaine

Bartender
Messages
33,715
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
This time of year, with college break in full swing, all the graduates of my concession staff come by the theatre to say hello and catch up, and there were so many of them around today that I commented it was "getting to be like Old Home Week around here." And nobody understood what I was saying.

For that matter, I haven't seen an actual Old Home Week in ages -- used to be every small town had a week in the summer where long-gone residents were encouraged to come back home for reunions, picnics, speeches and special events. I guess a world where people don't really "come from" anywhere anymore doesn't have room for such a tradition.
 

rjb1

Practically Family
Messages
561
Location
Nashville
Since they are college students they should be able to approximately translate "Old Home Week" to "Homecoming", which college alumni participate in. However, if they are on break now that means they haven't graduated, and possibly have not yet thought about going to their own "Homecoming".
When Homecoming happens here I always have a few of the recent graduates give a short presentation to the undergrads telling them how much harder things are out in the real world.
 

Bugguy

Practically Family
Messages
570
Location
Nashville, TN
In the movie "Forever Young" (Mel Gibson) last night.

"Close but no cigar"

also the word "cheaters" which is referring to sunglasses .

Anyone know the origins or why they were referred as such.

Funny, I always used a cheater to refer to a pipe extension... put it on the handle of your "monkey wrench" to increase your leverage.
 
Messages
12,005
Location
Southern California
Funny, I always used a cheater to refer to a pipe extension... put it on the handle of your "monkey wrench" to increase your leverage.
I've used it in that context as well. That's the "problem" with a term like "cheater"--it could be used in any number of circumstances.

My father always referred to someone as being "able to screw up a two-car funeral".
I've never heard that one before, but you can be sure it's going into my rotation of wisecracks! :yo:
 

Stanley Doble

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,808
Location
Cobourg
The thing you use for leverage is more properly a "cheater pipe".

Speaking of pipes, does anyone remember "pipe dream" or "hitting the pipe" for someone with too much imagination? As in, smoking an opium pipe?
 

Nobert

Practically Family
Messages
832
Location
In the Maine Woods
One term I still haven't got quite a handle on is, "no better than he/she ought to be." Seems to be a euphemism for someone of lax morals or (in the case of a woman) virtue, but I haven't quite nailed it down from context.
 

KILO NOVEMBER

One Too Many
Messages
1,068
Location
Hurricane Coast Florida
One term I still haven't got quite a handle on is, "no better than he/she ought to be." Seems to be a euphemism for someone of lax morals or (in the case of a woman) virtue, but I haven't quite nailed it down from context.

I think this one is "chiefly British" and not North American. The only places I have read or heard it is in British TV or books. The inference I drew from the context was that the subject was some sort of "low" person whose behavior was exactly the unsatisfactory sort that the speaker expected from such a person.
 

Stanley Doble

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,808
Location
Cobourg
"no better than she ought to be" referring to loose morals. This was current in the US in the 30s although it may have been old fashioned by then, at least it has a Victorian ring to it.

James Thurber did a cartoon in the 30s with the caption "She didn't used to be any better than she ought to be, but she is now".
 

Bugguy

Practically Family
Messages
570
Location
Nashville, TN
When trying to have a teaching moment with my teenage daughter, i'd either be "talking to the wall" or my comments would "go in one ear and out the other".


Another one my father would use when I was trying to spin a tale was "If stands stiff on fifty-fifth". I could never quite figure out his point. Sixty years later, I still can't.
 
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