Blog
Ralph’s occasional blog.
March 15, 2011
Gambling the Planet
Between nuclear power plants spewing radiation in Japan, fighting over oil fields in Libya, the Gulf oil spill off Louisiana, sundry coal mine disasters, and water pollution resulting from “fracking” for natural gas all…
March 2, 2011
Euphemism of the Week
While driving from Ohio to Philadelphia and back I was struck by how many stores beside I 70 sell “adult,” which is to say pornographic, items. So is “adult” now so synonymous with “pornography” that it can no longer be…
February 14, 2011
Euphemism of the Week
In the runup to the Super Bowl, a journalist visiting Pittsburgh found that locals thought little of the Steelers’ quarterback. The journalist reported that they considered Ben Roethlisberger a “jagoff.”
February 5, 2011
Euphemism of the Week
During her campaign for mayor of Chicago, Carol Mosely Braun said she had “an advanced degree from Harvard.” She doesn’t. Her campaign later said Braun “misspoke.”
January 25, 2011
Euphemism of the Week
Avada advertises an inexpensive hearing aid as one that can be purchased “at a more moderate investment level.”
January 16, 2011
Euphemism of the Week
During NPR’s “On Point” show, a guest referred to cows in feed lots so crowded that they must stand in their own “substance.” Host Tom Ashbrook called this substance “product.”
January 10, 2011
Euphemism of the Week
Sadly, the euphemism of the week is “second amendment remedies.”
January 3, 2011
Euphemism of the Week
The commander of a ship based in San Diego was recently fired by the Navy for being “unduly familiar” with members of his crew.
December 28, 2010
Euphemism of the Week
A recent New Yorker article reported that an outside auditor assessing a school building project in Nepal was called “very healthy” by locals. This was their euphemism for “massively obese.” According to writer Peter…
December 17, 2010
Euphemism of the Week
When an engine blew up on a Quantas flight from Singapore to Sydney, its pilot told 440 passengers that the airplane had a “technical issue.”
December 12, 2010
Euphemism of the Week
To explain his conviction that global warming is natural, incoming House Speaker John Boehner said “Every cow in the world, you know, when they do what they do you’ve got more carbon dioxide.”
December 9, 2010
From Jewels to Junk
The most discussed euphemism of recent times is junk (as in “Don’t touch my junk,” during an airport patdown). How we got from “family jewels” to “junk” escapes me. Today’s junk is yesterday’s stones, marbles…
October 3, 2010
Be Like Sacha
When determining who to blame for the suicide of Rutgers student Tyler Clementi, don’t’ forget Sacha Baron Cohen. More than any other single person Cohen has established that it’s okay to lure others into humiliating…
August 28, 2009
The Medium is the Message
In a recent photo of the Obamas bicycling on Martha’s Vineyard, Michelle and their two girls are wearing helmets, Barack isn’t. Message to the world: women and children need to wear bicycle helmets; real men don’t.
August 26, 2009
Ambivalence About Google
I can tell from the way my book The Quote Verifier gets referred to online these days that most of those who refer to it have only seen that work on Google Books. Needless to say this doesn’t please me. Better they…
August 18, 2009
Feeling Immortal
Years ago, while doing research for a book on risk-taking (Chancing It: Why We Take Risks), I interviewed lots of skydivers, rock climbers and the wire walker Philippe Petit. Even though such activities have caused…
August 14, 2009
Knees and Butter
I’ve been a runner for decades, fully aware that the pounding was probably destroying my knees. A recent article in the Times says that to the contrary, this longtime conventional wisdom is wrong. Studies have found…
August 12, 2009
Learn something every day.
During a Los Angeles radio show about retrotalk, a caller told me that someone had recently told him, ‘’Don’t gaslight me.’’ The host, Patt Morrison – more of a movie buff than me – said that this alludes to the 1944…
August 10, 2009
Rather be Canada?
In our debate about health care, the clinching argument by opponents of significant reform is usually “Do you want a health care system like Canada’s?” Any time I’ve asked a relative or friend in Canada whether they…
August 6, 2009
E-Books and Real Books
Several years ago we had to decide what kind of piano to buy for our children. Electronic keyboards were attractive because of their size, economy and versatility. But most reviews I read compared them to “real pianos.”…
August 5, 2009
Negotiators or Escorts?
When such as Bill Clinton, or Bill Richardson, or Jesse Jackson travel abroad to “negotiate” the release of hostages, aren’t they more like escorts sent to accompany home those whose release has already been negotiated?
August 2, 2009
Men Among Men
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…
July 25, 2009
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…
July 20, 2009
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…
July 18, 2009
'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…
June 7, 2009
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…
June 4, 2009
Retroterm of the Day: Slipshod.
Centuries ago, loose-fitting “slipshoes” were worn inside British homes. Some wore them outside as well. This was not considered good form. During the 16th century anyone who wore slipshoes in public risked being…
June 3, 2009
Retroterm of the Day: Whistlestop.
A century ago, towns too small to merit regular train service were called “whistle stops.” Trains stopped there only when a passenger pulled a signal cord. The engineer would then blow his whistle to indicate that he’d…
June 1, 2009
Retroterm of the Day: Loose cannon.
Early warship cannons were mounted on wheels so they could be rolled into place for loading and firing. Those not then lashed securely to the deck were liable to careen about uncontrollably, especially in rough seas…
May 29, 2009
Retroterm of the Day: Only when I laugh.
In an old joke a survivor of a wagon train massacre lies on the ground with an arrow in his back. When asked by rescuers if it hurts, the man moans, “Only when I laugh.” Truman’s Secretary of State Dean Acheson relied…
May 27, 2009
Retroterm of the Day: Maverick.
In the mid-19 th century, on Texas’s Gulf Coast, Samuel Maverick was given four hundred head of cattle to settle a debt. Maverick had little interest in ranching, and didn’t even brand his calves. As a result, in…
May 26, 2009
Latest op ed.
An op ed I wrote is in today’s Christian Science Monitor: https://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0526/p09s01-coop.html
May 25, 2009
Retroterm of the Day: Woodshed.
When most homes were heated with burning logs, woodsheds were a common sight outside. Most of these ramshackle outbuildings were far from houses themselves, making them an ideal location for smoking corn silk and…
May 23, 2009
Retroterm of the Day: Iron curtain.
“Iron curtain” was the name given fireproof metallic curtains that were first installed in theaters during the late eighteenth century. Since the early twentieth century iron curtain has been used by many a speaker or…
May 21, 2009
Retroterm of the day: Limelight.
During the 1820s a new type of lamp incorporated a rotating container of incandescent lime which was heated to the point that it gave off intense light. So-called limelighting was used by theaters around the world until…
May 19, 2009
Retroterm of the Day: Double whammy.
In the comic strip Li’l Abner , a gnomish, scowling hoodlum named Evil Eye Fleegle could flatten any man or woman alive by focusing one eye on his targets while pointing in their direction. That was a whammy . When…
May 18, 2009
"Why I Write"
Publishers Weekly recently ran my essay on “Why I Write.” https://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6657139.html
May 18, 2009
Retroterm of the Day: Jump on the bandwagon.
Ornately decorated vehicles wended through towns where circuses were about to appear. Musicians atop this “bandwagon” blasted their instruments. During the late 19th century politicians employed “band wagons” of their…
May 15, 2009
Retroterm of the Day: Scoop.
After the Civil War, reporters borrowed “scoop” from merchants who used that verb to mean going one up on competitors. Journalists still use scoop to mean being first out with a news story. That term has recently…
May 14, 2009
Retroterm of the Day: Goldbrick.
In the late nineteenth century goldbrick referred to a piece of cheaper metal that con men painted to look like gold. Eventually this term referred to all manner of swindles. By 1918 goldbrick was applied first to…
May 13, 2009
Retroterm of the Day: Pollyanna.
In Eleanor Porter’s 1913 novel Pollyanna , eleven-year-old orphan Pollyanna Whittier lives in the dark attic of her dour aunt’s home. Through the power of irrepressible good will Pollyanna melts the frozen heart of her…
May 11, 2009
Retroterm of the Day: Pyrrhic victory.
In what is now northwestern Greece and southern Albania, King Pyrrhus who ruled a small country called Epirus, was notorious for tolerating enormous casualties among his troops. After suffering a hideous loss of…
May 10, 2009
Retroterm of the Day: The real McCoy.
In mid-19th century Edinburgh, the G. Mackay distillery produced a well-regarded whiskey. When comparing this product to imitators, Scotsmen talked of “the real Mackay.” Scottish migrants brought this catchphrase to the…
May 8, 2009
Retroterm of the Day: On tenterhooks.
Beginning in the Middle Ages washed wool fabric was stretched tightly on wooden frames called tenters .. The wet fabric was attached to L-shaped hooks along the tenter’s perimeter to keep it from shrinking. When in a…
May 6, 2009
Retroterm of the Day: Mr. Peepers.
Robinson J. Peepers, the bespectacled junior high school science teacher played by Wally Cox on television from 1952 to 1955, left his name behind as shorthand for timid, spectacles-wearing men like him: Mr. Peepers.
May 4, 2009
Retroterm of the Day: Doofus.
In 1958 a new character was introduced to the comic strip Popeye : a dimwitted nephew of the sailor man named “Dufus.” Over time the re-spelled term “doofus” became slang for clueless individuals.
May 3, 2009
Retroterm of the Day: Dance card.
At parties a century ago women hung small cards from their wrist on which they jotted down whom they’d be dancing with. That’s what we refer to when we say “My dance card’s full.”
May 1, 2009
Retroterm of the Day: No skin off my nose.
Calling an inconsequential event “no skin off my nose” references the way boxers described a wimpy punch: too weak to scrape skin off an opponent’s nose
April 29, 2009
Retroterm of the Day: Scuttlebutt
On nineteenth-century British ships, a wooden cask, or butt, held drinking water. Its lid had a dipping hole called a scuttle. The two pieces combined were called a scuttlebutt. As would later be true of office workers…
April 28, 2009
Retroterm of the Day: Mrs. Robinson
In honor of movie character “Mrs. Robinson,” the older woman played by Anne Bancroft in The Graduate who tried to seduce young Dustin Hoffman, we still call a seductress like her Mrs. Robinson. This is easier to say…
April 26, 2009
Retroterm of the Day: Cliffhanger.
Those who filmed oldtime weekly movie serials knew moviegoers were likely to return if they left their hero or heroine in dire distress at the end of each segment: tied to railroad tracks as a train approached, sinking…
April 24, 2009
Retroterm of the Day: Stump speech.
European settlers noted that Indian leaders stood on stumps of downed trees to address members of their tribe. This made so much sense that they adopted the practice themselves. By the mid-nineteenth century it was…
April 23, 2009
Retroterm of the Day: Drop a dime.
Back in day making a call from a public telephone cost ten cents. These phones were commonly used by whistle blowers to anonymously report misdeeds. They dropped a dime. Those who did this were called dime droppers.
April 22, 2009
Retroterm of the Day: Moxie.
When we say someone has “Moxie,” we hark back to a soft drink that was the leading pepper-upper of its era. In its heyday before World War II this drink was so popular that a song was written about it: “The Moxie Fox…
April 21, 2009
Retroterm of the Day: Alphonse and Gaston.
A popular comic strip a century ago featured two bowing and scraping French dandies who treated each other with elaborate deference. “After you, my dear Alphonse,” one would say, only to be told, “No, after you, my dear…
April 19, 2009
Retroterm of the Day: In lockstep.
A century ago, many American prisoners were made to march with their right hand resting on the right shoulder of the man before them. With heads bowed, no talking allowed, they could only shuffle awkwardly in what was…
April 18, 2009
Retroterm of the Day: Cha ching.
This slang term for money comes from a 1992 ad for Rally’s hamburgers that featured a fast-food guy at a rival chain who shouts “Cha ching!” every time he rings up a pricey new item. His shout mimicked the sound of…
April 16, 2009
Retroterm of the day: On the wagon.
Beginning in the late nineteenth century men with drinking problems showed their resolve to quit by vowing that they’d rather drink water from the wagon that wetted down dusty roads than liquor. They were “on the water…
April 14, 2009
Retroterm of the Day: Cooties.
That’s what soldiers in World War I’s verminous trenches called body lice, adapting “kutu,” the Malay word for louse. After the war American soldiers brought this term home along with their ribbons and medals. Kids…
April 12, 2009
Retroterm of the Day: Gangbusters.
Gang Busters was a fast-paced cops ‘n’ robbers radio show that featured the sounds of glass breaking, whistles blowing, guns blasting, and sirens wailing. Within a few years of its 1935 debut, “like gangbusters” had…
April 10, 2009
Retroterm of the Day: Drink the Kool Aid
This allusion to fervent loyalty harks back to the 1978 Jonestown, Guyana massacre in which hundreds of followers of the Rev. Jim Jones obeyed his orders to commit suicide by drinking a cyanide-laced fruit drink…