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Summer Reading: from OED to OMG

January 8, 2011 //  by David Keyes

Hartford Courant

By Rob Kyff

Gen X’ers with iPod buds stuck into their ears might puzzle over the meaning of terms derived from phonograph records: “flip side,” “like a broken record” and “in the groove.” Ralph Keyes is here to help with “I Love It When You Talk Retro” (St. Martin’s, $25.95), which describes the origins of terms based on the technology, politics or culture of days gone by.

I never knew, for instance, that “doofus” is derived from “Dufus,” a dimwitted character in the Popeye comic strip, or that the first “truth squad” was a group of Republicans who followed President Harry Truman as he campaigned for Adlai Stevenson in 1952.

Category: press-retro

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