It’s a while since I instigated a topic here. Rather than add more invective to the "cow" thread, I propose this:

Today, I was having a quiet pint with a British colleague. The subject turned to cowboy boots. In passing conversation, I used the term "winklepickers" and we both laughed heartily. Neither of us had heard the term, popular in England in the 50s and 60s for pointy shoes, in years.

It occured to me that some very specific words enjoy a fleeting popularity and then quickly pass out of general usage.

I’ll try to think of some others. Anyone got any?

- PW
who once owned several pairs of the aforementioned footwear

:D I’d like to know the origin of "winklepickers!"

Let’s see if I can add to the list . . .

I don’t think you’ll find a "head shop" anywhere like the old Joint Possession in College Park, MD, or the nearby Electric Head (was it in Berwyn Heights?).  

When was the last time you saw a "beatnik?"

Add to the list the no longer politically correct words "negro" and "colored people" (Unless you’re talking about the UNCF  and the  NAACP).    

Should we add "typewriter" to the list?  How many people younger than 21 or so have ever seen one?  I earned a lot of beer money in college typing term papers on an SCM portable my aunt and uncle gave me for a high school graduation present.  

Should we add "typewriter" to the list?

I’m afraid we probably should. I learned my craft on a manual Olivetti. I still miss the sound "clack clack" of each letter landing on the paper. Somehow, computers don’t hack it.

Beatnik is good, too. In the same vein, perhaps "square" would qualify.

- PW
a square peg in a hole we haven’t yet defined

How about record as in "Dad, what’s a record?"

DJ

Wasn’t there a lovely post a while back about the:

sliderule?

    Oooh how about tubular or radical?  These were from a time before I was old enough to appreciate what they meant, and I’m only 18!  Somehow, when my mother says awesome, it doesn’t sound quite right, but it must the generation gap that’s widening…

Amy

[quote author=demijohn link=board=omni;num=1052448793;start=0#3 date=05/09/03 at 16:03:22]How about record as in "Dad, what’s a record?"

DJ

Right up there with the 8-track tape!

My wife says I have a one-track mind but it’s really 8-track quadraphonic!

[quote author=Palewriter link=board=omni;num=1052448793;start=0#2 date=05/09/03 at 00:40:03]
I’m afraid we probably should. I learned my craft on a manual Olivetti. I still miss the sound "clack clack" of each letter landing on the paper. Somehow, computers don’t hack it.

I remember downloading a piece of freeware years ago that made that sound when you typed on the keyboard.  It was comforting and familiar until it became totally annoying.  I bet you can still find it out there.

Brad

In the same vein as my earlier post, there’s record-player, fourty-five, and single as well as A-side and B-side, which of course refer to the two songs on either side of a single, and whatever the name of that little three armed spiral widget you put in the center of a fourty-five to play it on a multispeed record player was.

In the fashion industry, model is apparently outmoded, having been superceded by super-models and other anorexic, hyphenated specialists.

Color-TV is pretty much redundant these days.

The automobile industry has done away with interchangeable parts.

Tap water, while still widely available, is losing it’s popularity as a beverage.

Nobody wants to grow up to be a spaceman any more, although astronaut, cosmonaut and others remain popular.

SCUBA is immensely popluar, but only Jethro Tull fans remember Aqualung.

Then there’s Brontosaurus, a dinosaur formerly thought to be extinct, and now acknowledged to never have existed. (This probably deserves a special classification of its own, although a paleontologist may suggest others.)

- Demijohn (whose nom-de-plume fits squarely into this round hole of a topic)

[quote author=demijohn link=board=omni;num=1052448793;start=0#8 date=05/12/03 at 16:40:50]Then there’s Brontosaurus, a dinosaur formerly thought to be extinct, and now acknowledged to never have existed. (This probably deserves a special classification of its own, although a paleontologist may suggest others.)

So you mean all those burgers Fred Flintstone ate were tofu ? Gasp!  ;D

Probably Apatasaurus, but that reminds me that Tofu has pretty much replaced bean curd!

DJ

Hey DJ, did you notice this quote from the Brontosaurus article?

Stephen Jay Gould, the noted biologist, pointed out that the issue was a tempest in a teapot in his famous article, "Bully for the Brontosaurus" written for Natural History magazine.

Did you see Henri’s suggested WotD from a few days ago…?

-Tim

"Bully for the Brontosaurus"

I heard that they were refined gentleman (and ladies).

DJ

A sub-topic "outdated humor from the recent past":

My grandfather thought the following puzzle was hilarious:

YYURYYUBICUR2Y4ME

- PW
who doesn’t think it’s funny at all

[quote author=Palewriter link=board=omni;num=1052448793;start=0#13 date=05/15/03 at 19:33:02]A sub-topic "outdated humor from the recent past":

My grandfather thought the following puzzle was hilarious:

YYURYYUBICUR2Y4ME

- PW
who doesn’t think it’s funny at all

Wise you are, wise you be, I see you are too wise for me.  (Are you missing anothe Y after the 2?)

//Larry
 Who tries to puzzle things out to keep his brain from going stale, not always successfully.

[quote author=Stargzer link=board=omni;num=1052448793;start=0#14 date=05/15/03 at 22:33:06]
Wise you are, wise you be, I see you are too wise for me.  (Are you missing anothe Y after the 2?)

THANK YOU SOOO MUCH, STARGZER!

- iCYbELLE
whose brain went stale a long time ago, and couldn’t figure out the riddle, much to her despair