Stuckholder; SF terms

Bapopik at AOL.COM Bapopik at AOL.COM
Sun Jun 20 16:34:31 UTC 1999


      If you stayed up late on Friday night, past the Knicks-Spurs game, past
the half-hour local news, and past Jay Leno, there was Conan O'Brien's
interview with Mike Meyers of AUSTIN POWERS.  Meyers went into great detail
about his dialect coach.  (Who is --?  A member of the ADS?)
      Included here is some material from my science fiction readings of
1950-1955 (suggested by Mike S.).

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STUCKHOLDER

     "Stuckholder" (a pun on "stockholder") is mentioned in the "Back of the
Envelope" section in this week's NEW YORK OBSERVER.
     Usenet didn't turn up any hits, but ProQuest has the WALL STREET
JOURNAL, 18 June 1990, pg. A9:

     Lawyers and investment bankers hired themselves out to the highest
bidders and conjured up schemes such as stock repurchases, shark repellents,
poison pills, greenmail and golden parachutes, to protect unworthy
managements while diluting stockholder, or "stuckholder" interests, as
Garfinkle (Lawrence Garfinkle, "Larry the Liquidator," in Jerry Sterner's
play, OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY--ed.) puts it.

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RUN FOR THE ROSES (continued)

    NEW YORK EVENING JOURNAL, 7 May 1934, pg. 23, col. 1:  A finer quartet
shouldn't have carried away Marse Matt Winn's roses.
     NEW YORK EVENING JOURNAL, 2 May 1936, pg. 11, col. 1:  ...Matt Winn's
necklace of roses.
    NEW YORK JOURNAL-AMERICAN, 2 May 1939, pg. 17, col 1:  Still, this might
just possibly be a year for such a horse in Colonel Matt's classic run for
the roses.
    NEW YORK JOURNAL-AMERICAN, 6 May 1939, pg. 15, col. 6:  ...one of the
most brilliant runs for Colonel Matt Winn's Roses in the long history of the
race.
    That's the earliest I could find in Bill Corum's columns.

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"STRING WITH A CHAMPION UNTIL HE LOSES"

    This sounds a lot like Wall Street's "cut your losses and let your
winners run."  From Bill Corum's column in the NEW YORK EVENING JOURNAL, 2
May 1936, pg. 11, col. 1:

    The oldest, sagest slogan in our business is: String with a champion
until he loses.

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"IT'S ONLY MONEY"

    This is a very popular phrase that I couldn't find recorded.  Is it from
the Depression?  From Bill Corum's column in the NEW YORK EVENING JOURNAL, 1
May 1936, pg. 11, col. 1:

     No Phoce Howard to say: "It's only money, and your life don't go with
it."

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"WE'RE LOST, BUT WE'RE MAKING GOOD TIME!" (continued)

     I posted a citation for "We're lost, but we're making good time!" from
the 1950s.  It's in THE YOGI BOOK: "I REALLY DIDN'T SAY EVERYTHING I SAID"
(1998) by Yogi Berra, pg. 51.  He allegedly coined it in 1972!

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HOBO (continued)

     This, for whatever it's worth, is from the NEW YORK TRIBUNE, 12 January
1915, pg. 5, col. 4 (one of several articles about hoboes):

     "And a hobo's a good man," he (hobo king Jeff Davis--ed.) hurried on in
a Niagara of verbiage.  "De name comes from de Latin, homo, a man, and bonus,
good.  Say, we're goin' to make the dictionaries get a different meanin' for
de word.  Why, old Chris Columbus and 'em pioneers, dey was all hoboes."

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"THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT"

     One of Terrence McNally's first plays was AND THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE
NIGHT (1956).  A few years later there was a novel, THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN
THE NIGHT (1959), by Louis Clark Jones.
     The phrase is not recorded in my phrase books.  Perhaps it comes from a
song in that decade, such as Smiley Lewis's "Bumpity Bump."
     This letter to the editor is from FANTASTIC ADVENTURES, January 1951,
pg. 122:

     Say, what we got 'ere?  An example of unconscious telepathy or
something.  In Mort Paley's letter there is reference to "ghosts, or
vampires, or beasties that go boomp in the night."  In the next one, Brian
McNaughton's, there are the following words: "I certainly have no objections
to 'Ghoulies and ghosties and long-legged beasties that go bump in the
night'."  Perhaps it's just a coincidence though.  Or more likely, being both
teenagers and sharing like interests, the two guys correspond with one
another and have had a similar phrasing in one of their letters which made an
impression on both so that it came out in their letters to you.
     Well, I don't mind beasties, and witches, and vampires and goblins, and
things that go "bomp" or "boomp" in the night either.

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"LOCK 'EM UP AND THROW AWAY THE KEY"

     Gregory Titelman's RANDOM HOUSE HISTORICAL DICTIONARY OF POPULAR
PROVERBS AND SAYINGS has "_Lock 'em up and throw away the key._  Put
criminals in jail and no hope of ever being released.  Not listed in any
dictionary of proverbs and sayings."  The first citation is 1989!
     "...and throw away the key" by Win Kinney was the title of a short story
in AMAZING STORIES, September 1954, pg. 68.

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WOW, DOUBLE WOW, TRIPLE WOW

    "Wow, double wow, triple wow" seems to have died a quick slang death.
FANTASTIC ADVENTURES, March 1952, pg. 126, col. 2, had "A THREE-WOW LETTER":

     But the cover!  Wow!  It was better than anything in '51 except "Empire
of Evil."
     Then that December issue--Wow, Wow and triple Wow.

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SF & STF

     Jack Lait and Lee Mortimer, publishers of the CONFIDENTIAL series (with
useful glossaries at the end), wrote "Mars Confidential" for AMAZING STORIES,
May 1953, with "THE APPENDIX CONFIDENTIAL."  Some pages are missing on the
microfilm, but this is on page 19, col. 1:

_S.F.:_  An abbreviation for science fiction.

     FANTASTIC ADVENTURES, August 1951, pg. 120, col. 1:

     Pardon my ignorance, but what does "stf" stand for?  "S-F" is obviously
science-fiction; is "stf" a variant?
     (...)
     _S-F stands for science fiction; while STF is just a variation meaning
scientific fiction,  ................Ed._

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ISH; ILLO; FANED; PROZINE; EGOBOO

     This is from AMAZING STORIES, June 1955, pg. 75:

     Fanzines are, as their name implies, magazines put out by fans.  Such
professional publications as _Amazing_ and _Fantastic_ are known as
"prozines."
     (...)
     Over the years, they have developed a special argot: "ish" for "issue";
"illo" for "illustration"; "faned" (rhymes with "Slan head") for "fan
editor", to give a few examples.

     From AMAZING STORIES, October 1955, pg. 101:

     As I have mentioned in a previous column, that group of science fiction
fans who read, edit, and/or publish fanzines have developed their own
lexicon.  One of the most interesting of the terms they have invented is
"egoboo."  Now, just what _is_ egoboo?  As I understand it, it is a task or
work performed, an attitude taken, which is designed to augment one's
reputation.  It is, in other word, ego-boosting.

     The RHHDAS has "ish" from 1967.  There are no entries for "egoboo,"
"illo," and "faned."



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