Would Sgt. Crowley have arrested Dr. Gates if he’d been alone? The reason I ask is a longstanding observation that when in the presence of each other, men tend to behave far differently than when they’re by themselves, or in the presence of women. My favorite illustration is a study in which drivers were observed …
Chauncey Gardiner
A New Yorker writer recently called Iran’s president “Chauncey Gardinerish.” In the 1979 movie Being There, Peter Sellers played a dim-bulb gardener named Chance who is, when dressed in the well-tailored suits of his late employer, is taken to be an upper-crust executive named Chauncey Gardiner (because he introduces himself as “Chance . . . …
Dashboards
A reader has asked about “dashboard,” a word being used for computer programs whose elements are laid out on a “dashboard.” This term originally referred to the angled board used to protect buggy users from the muddy backsplash of horses’ hooves. It was subsequently borrowed by makers of horseless carriages for the front panels inside …
'Splainin'
During Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearing, Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn told her “You have a lot of ‘splainin’ to do.” The press helpfully pointed out that this was something Ricky Ricardo often said to Lucy on the 1950s I Love Lucy sitcom. Except he didn’t. The Cuban-born bandleader did once ask his wife to “splain” herself …
The Patt Morrison Show
89.3 KPCCradio (NPR) in Los Angeles My favorite part of [yesterday’s] program was with Ralph Keyes, the author of ‘’I Love It When You Talk Retro,’’ about how we use shorthand references in our language – ‘’drop a dime’’ for turning somebody in, ‘’Mrs Robinson’’ for an older woman seducing a younger man – without …
Retroterm of the Day: Luddite.
Three centuries ago English textile manufacturers began to use mechanical looms. They then dismissed some employees and reduced the wages of others. Textile workers organized protests under the aegis of a mythical leader named General Ludd. During some, mechanized looms were smashed. “Luddite” has since come to refer generically to those who resist resist technological …