Oscar bait; PDX

[Robert Kelly]

in Baltimore I've heard "BWI"
in Los Angeles (for more playful reasons) I've often heard LAX

ciao,
R

On Tue, 21 Mar 2000, James Callan wrote:

> Hello. I'm a long-time lurker on ADS-L. I'm not a professional linguist,
> nor do I play one on TV. I'm a former English major, current advertising
> copywriting student, and vernacular enthusiast.
>
> I've got two slang-related questions:
>
> 1) Does anyone know how old the phrase "Oscar bait" is? It seems like
> relatively current showbiz jargon to me, but I wonder if it predates the
> '90s. Off-the-cuff definition: a movie or performance calculated to draw
> attention from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences members,
> thereby winning the film/performer an Oscar nomination.
>
> Entertainment Weekly's online archives indicate that it was first used in
> that magazine in 1996.
>
> 2) People in Portland, Oregon, seem to use PDX (the city airport's
> three-letter code) to refer to the city itself quite frequently. The local
> section of the Oregonian newspaper is called PDX. I've seen several people
> use it in writing when referring to the city.
>
> Do any other cities embrace their airport code with such enthusiasm? Or am
> I imagining a usage difference between Portland and other cities?
>
> Thanks for your attention. I'll dive back to lurking.
>
> James Callan
> jabeca at drizzle.com
>