Grunions & Actoids

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

GRUNIONS

   From NEW YORK PRESS, November 29-December 5, 2000, pg. 2, col. 2:

   The annual _New York_ "expose" on ecstasy use by Silicon Alley grunions...

(Grunions?  What happened to grunts?  OED has "grunion," but it's a fish--ed.)

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ACTOID

   From NEW YORK PRESS, November 29-December 5, 2000, pg. 29, col. 2, caption about a character in Alan Ayckbourn's new play, COMIC POTENTIAL:

   Dee, as a robot "actoid," makes a performance of enormous technical difficulty seem easy.

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MARY HAD A LITTLE LAMB

   RESTAURANT MANAGEMENT, January 1935, pg. 33, has a menu from WRIGHT'S QUICK LUNCH (Newport Beach) House of "Wisecracks," which include:

MARY HAD A
LITTLE LAMB
WHAT WILL
YOU HAVE

WEATHER FORECAST
CHILI TODAY
AND TOMORROW

LOOK OUT FOR OUR
   DOGS
THEY ARE THE WURST KIND

Making Love is like
   APPLE PIE
a Little Crust & a lot of
   APPLESAUCE

ROSES ARE RED
VIOLETS BLUE
HORSES NECK
  DO YOU?

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SELL THE SIZZLE

   From THE ESTIATOR (NYC; it's half-Greek to me), August 1940, pg. 13, col. 2:

_The Sizzle Sells The Steak_
   It's the sizzle that sells the steak and not the cow.  You never saw a cow walking through a restaurant taking orders for her shank bone.  But what happens when a waiter walks through with a steak that sizzles?  First the customer hears it, then he smells it and then he sees it.  If he has the money he will order the steak instead of a hamburger that fizzles.