Shooting the Breeze (1941)

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Thu Aug 16 16:17:55 UTC 2001


SHOOTING THE BREEZE

   OED has 1943?
   From the NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE, 29 August 1941, pg. 14, col. 5:

_Shooting the Breeze_
by Joseph Driscoll
(...)  But when the men of the U. S. N. have time to relax, they relax in a great big way.  What is their favorite relaxation?  Strange as it may seem to landlubbers, your naval man would pass up wine, women or song any time if only he be permitted to shoot the breeze.
   Shooting the breeze is yarn spinning, only I never heard it called the latter on shipboard.  When sailor-folk shoot the breeze they are not conscious of retailing fiction.
(Long article--ed.)

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SODA FOUNTAIN TALK

   From Clementine Paddleford in the NYHT, 12 August 1941, pg. 22, col. 6:

   Crazy conversation floats out from the bar.  Julie shouting: "Go ahead, order what you want.  Don't look at the price."  "The lady wants a stack of plain vanilla."  That's one we heard Sunday.  A small cola becomes "a short one."  A double coke is "a stretch."  A frosted chocolate is shouted as "a freeze" while a "burn" is a malted milk.  But don't ask us why.
   The soda lingo, we learn, is authentic, picked up from campus fountain jerkers, an earful to the uninitiated! (...)
   Mishap Martin's "poison ivy soda" was nothing more vicious than a combination of soda with a dash of raspberry ice, this last out of mother's automatic refrigerator.

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CRULLER BAR

   Another "bar."
  "_Cruller Bar Boosts Shop's Baked-Goods Sales_" is the headline in the NYHT, 20 August 1941, pg. 13, cols. 6-8.  Col. 6:  "Follow your nose straight to a cruller bar--crullers five cents, coffee a dime, and both of the best."



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