Terms Which Have Disappeared

[LizzieMaine]

"How's tricks?" as a general inquiry into the current state of affairs. I use this all the time and the kids always look at me with puzzlement.

 

[countryclubjoe]

I hate to be a buzz kill, but this is the "Terms Which Have Disappeared" thread, not "The Great Gatsby" thread.

The term " Copper" disappeared.. " Thread Copper "

 

[hatguy1]

The term " Copper" disappeared.. " Thread Copper "

"The coppers!" (Meaning police)

 

[countryclubjoe]

"The coppers!" (Meaning police)

Hi Hatguy1

Indeed, I am well aware of the term. I was simply joking that our fellow lounger" Kilo Novermber" was being a Thread cop aka copper...
My post was in jest and no disrespect was implied..

Best regards

CCJ

 

[fashion frank]

When was the last time someone told you that you were " showboatin "
Haven't heard that one in a long time.

Also I just thought of this one "gee wizz " and "on the square " or "on the qt"

All the Best ,Fashion Frank

 

[hatguy1]

Hi Hatguy1

Indeed, I am well aware of the term. I was simply joking that our fellow lounger" Kilo Novermber" was being a Thread cop aka copper...
My post was in jest and no disrespect was implied..

Best regards

CCJ

No worries, Joe. I didn't take any offense. I hope - beings that you are an LEO - that you didnt' take offense to my term from yesteryear.

Cheers.

 

[Stearmen]

My mother used to say, "your too cute by half!" Meaning, quit showing off.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

How about some newspaper terms? (You remember newspapers, right?)
When I was about 14 or 15, I was a "paperboy". I walked an area with a large canvas sack over my shoulder, dropping a copy of "The Pittsburgh Press" (now extinct) on the porches of subscribers. In other places we were called "newsboys". Remember in "The Maltese Falcon" when Spade drags Wilmer into The Fat Man's hotel room after having disarmed the thoroughly shamefaced Wilmer, Spade says, "A crippled newsie took them from him. I made him give them back."

The Pittsburgh Press was an "evening newspaper". Not many of those still around. Evening newspapers appealed to a blue collar market. The morning newspaper, the "Post-Gazette" was distinctly more up-market.

When newspapers were at their peak (say, from the 1890's up until The Great Depression and WWII), large city papers published multiple daily editions. The earliest was the "Bulldog" edition. Newspapers were set on "Linotype machines".

So who among you is a real newspaper historian with some more extinct newspaper vocabulary?

 

[scottyrocks]

Yep, I did newspaper delivery on occasion, too.

Back then, the paper had to be left in a very particular spot, either inside, or somehow attached to the mailbox, if it wasn't big enough.

These days, papers are delivered by adults in cars, often on huge routes. Our papers are usually at or near the curb, in plastic instead of a rubber band. Plastic, which does almost nothing to protect the paper if it is left in the rain for more than a few minutes.

 

[LizzieMaine]

"The Agate" was the newspaper material published in agate-sized type -- stock quotes, sports statistics, shipping news, parimutual results. This term by extention came to refer to any trivial easily-overlooked information that might nevertheless prove important.

"Dateline" is still used occasionally, but it originally meant the text at the beginning of any individual bit of wire-service copy indicating from where and when the story was posted.

"Slug" was printer's jargon for a bit of lead used to space out an empty place in a line of set type. It went on, by extention, to refer to any inert object used to fill the space of a real item. A "telephone slug" was a metal token used in place of a nickel in a pay telephone in some locations. "Putting a slug in the lock" meant to insert a bit of metal into a keyhole to prevent the use of the key, an act often taken as part of eviction proceedings.

"three-oh" or "thirty" meant the end, the conclusion of a statement. This came from --30--, used as typesetter's code for the end of a story or an article.

"tab" or "tabloid" referred to a shortened version of something normally encountered in a fuller form -- a "tab show" was a brief stage presentation often presented as part of a movie show, featuring selections from a popular musical comedy but without the plot scenes. This comes from tabloid newspapers, a popular innovation of the 1920s which folded the usual broadsheet page into quarters.

"Flash" for a late-breaking news story was wire-service code for a story of transcendent importance. It was popularized in the early thirties by Walter Winchell on his radio broadcast, when he would lead into the final commercial of the program by promising that he would "be back in a flash with a flash."

 

[hatguy1]

"Paper route," "copyboy," the exciting shout of "Extra! Extra! Read all about it..." from "newsboys" at the corners.


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[fashion frank]

"Paper route," "copyboy," the exciting shout of "Extra! Extra! Read all about it..." from "newsboys" at the corners.


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Aside from newsboys on street corners , can anyone remembr "news stands " .

In Providence on just about every other street corner was a news stand .
Most were plywood built say perhaps six feet tall byeight or so feet wide and only a few feet deep.

There would be a guy sitting on a stool with the doors of the stand open and it would be chock full of all kinds of papers mags etc etc anything in print.
Those are long gone and it looks like newspapers are also on the way out .

Now while talking about this and perhaps straying a bit off topic , it just dawned on me about how much "damage " just one little modern gadget like the "smartphone" has done and can do to outdate and obsolete so many other things like for instance ,the newspaper, the telephone booth, maps (gps) ,the camera ,the u.s.p.s. ( email).
I am sure there are a few others that I havent thought of , but I'm sure you get my drift.

All the Best ,Fashion Frank

 

[hatguy1]

Bunch of those newstands still in lower Manhattan .


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[Zombie_61]

Aside from newsboys on street corners , can anyone remembr "news stands " .

In Providence on just about every other street corner was a news stand .
Most were plywood built say perhaps six feet tall byeight or so feet wide and only a few feet deep.

There would be a guy sitting on a stool with the doors of the stand open and it would be chock full of all kinds of papers mags etc etc anything in print.
Those are long gone and it looks like newspapers are also on the way out .

There are still quite a few in the Hollywood area, mostly on side streets adjacent to Hollywood Blvd., but they're really more "magazine" stands than news stands these days. There may be some in downtown Los Angeles, but I'm not in that area often enough to make that determination. Sadly, it seems even book stores (or any other print media outlets) are also on the decline.

Now while talking about this and perhaps straying a bit off topic , it just dawned on me about how much "damage " just one little modern gadget like the "smartphone" has done and can do to outdate and obsolete so many other things like for instance ,the newspaper, the telephone booth, maps (gps) ,the camera ,the u.s.p.s. ( email).
I am sure there are a few others that I havent thought of , but I'm sure you get my drift.

A very good friend of mine only recently (within the last year) got his first cell phone, has no Internet access in his apartment, and doesn't have cable/satellite television. He's no Luddite (by the modern definition), but he sees little to no real advantage in the added expenditures and "hassles" associated with such technology. The cell phone was a necessity, as his mother has developed some health issues related to her age and needed access to him that pay phones can't provide, but otherwise he's perfectly happy doing without the things most people can't seem to live without these days. Prior to getting his cell phone he had remarked a number of times on the state of disrepair of most pay phones, and still occasionally expresses his discontent with the decline of daily newspapers (particularly regarding their ever-decreasing page count and all-too-brief articles that end with the phrase "For more information, go to www.whatever.com."), but otherwise says he doesn't miss television and couldn't care less about the 'Net. So, contrary to popular belief, a person can get by without a smartphone, gps, the Internet, e-mail, etc., but it's definitely becoming increasingly more difficult to do so.

 

[hatguy1]

To Fashion Frank's points, the same term "firecracker stand" really doesn't describe them accurately anymore. Today - in this area, at least - they're more like circus tents filled with table after table of fireworks. But, I remember the day when they were just as FF described those plywood newstands.


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[Fading Fast]

There are still quite a few in the Hollywood area, mostly on side streets adjacent to Hollywood Blvd., but they're really more "magazine" stands than news stands these days. There may be some in downtown Los Angeles, but I'm not in that area often enough to make that determination. Sadly, it seems even book stores (or any other print media outlets) are also on the decline.

A very good friend of mine only recently (within the last year) got his first cell phone, has no Internet access in his apartment, and doesn't have cable/satellite television. He's no Luddite (by the modern definition), but he sees little to no real advantage in the added expenditures and "hassles" associated with such technology. The cell phone was a necessity, as his mother has developed some health issues related to her age and needed access to him that pay phones can't provide, but otherwise he's perfectly happy doing without the things most people can't seem to live without these days. Prior to getting his cell phone he had remarked a number of times on the state of disrepair of most pay phones, and still occasionally expresses his discontent with the decline of daily newspapers (particularly regarding their ever-decreasing page count and all-too-brief articles that end with the phrase "For more information, go to www.whatever.com."), but otherwise says he doesn't miss television and couldn't care less about the 'Net. So, contrary to popular belief, a person can get by without a smartphone, gps, the Internet, e-mail, etc., but it's definitely becoming increasingly more difficult to do so.

To each his own and if he's happy and it works for him that's great. I have found though that the decline in content in physical papers is more than offset by the explosion of news and information on line (and the ability to access it quickly, even old articles) is awesome (and I don't have to maintain a mini research library in my house anymore). My point is that web access with an inexpensive computer and least costly hookup is (of course) more than zero, but a small amount relative to the information one receives. And within five years or so, I think it might be almost impossible to function normally (read news, have access to basic information) without the internet.

And I'm a guy that greatly misses the newspaper culture. Living in NYC, even into the 90s, there were still some "late editions", "finals" and the occasional "special" and the newsstands were everywhere and robust. I loved the feeling of excitement you got when the newspaper guy cut open the stack (just thrown from the truck that never came to a complete stop) and sold you the first copy (normally one deep as the first one was usually ripped or wrinkled). But the internet killed it and now they are, as said above, magazine stands (with soda and candy), but the life went out of them when the newspaper culture died. I appreciate what your friend is doing, but I think he is going to be pulled perforce on line.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

This appeared in my news feed today on book face.

 

[Zombie_61]

To each his own and if he's happy and it works for him that's great...I appreciate what your friend is doing, but I think he is going to be pulled perforce on line.

Truthfully, he isn't doing it out of some sort of "traditional" or "moral" high ground. It's primarily more of a financial concern and, for the time being, the Internet and television are luxuries rather than necessities for him--luxuries he can't really afford easily. And he does realize his days are numbered--it's more a matter of "when" than of "if". But for now, he makes do with what he has.

 

[jamespowers]

He is worse than a Dutch Uncle.

 

[hatguy1]

Talks like a Dutch uncle.

And, similarly....

Could talk the leg off an Iron/Trojan Horse.


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