Miggs (marbles) & much more

Sat Aug 25 03:35:57 UTC 2001

   Some stuff from the NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE and PIC, neither of which I've finished reading.  Columbia University has the last two reels of PIC in another box--I'll look at them (nerd?) when I return in two weeks.

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MIGGS

   From PIC, 25 July 1939, pg. 31, col. 1:

_MARBLES_
(Photo captions--ed.)
MIGGS (Not in OED?  Miggles?  Mibsies?  Mibbies?--ed.)
DROP-EYE
SQUARO
RINGERS
Purgatory differs greatly from the commonly known games pictured above.  It is modeled after golf and the first to reach "purg" wins the miggs.

(Photo of "Fudge knuckles" is on the next page--ed.)

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TOP TEN

   OED has 1958 for "top ten."
   From PIC, 8 August 1939, pg. 7:

_THE TOP TEN...WHY?_
(...)  Thus, the two most important factors for making "top-ten" films would seem to be sentiment and novelty.

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WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT MUSIC?

   This article is in PIC, 24 June 1941, pg. 24:

7.  Explain these expressions: "barrelhouse," "to woodshed it," "longhair."

9.  Who invented "rippling rhythm" and "shuffle music"?

10.  In a popular song what is known as "the release"?

18.  What instruments are sometimes referred to as "woodpile," "plumbing," "licorice stick," "88," "skins"?

31.  In jazz musicians' parlance what do these expressions mean: "on a panic," "beat to the chops," "corny"?

33.  Who popularized the expression: "I was in the studio at the time"?

Pg. 49, col. 3:

7.  Lowdown, hot music; to practice a piece; a classical musician.

9.  Shep Fields, Jan Savitt.

10.  The middle eight bars.

18.  Xylophone, trombone, clarinet, piano, drums.

31.  Financially troubled; to have sore lips; corn-fed meaning out of date.

32.  John Hammond, the jazz critic, used it frequently when he was commenting on certain jazz recordings.

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..NOBODY TALKS THAT WAY

   From the article in THIS WEEK, NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE, 11 July 1948, pg. 5, col. 1:

_Americans have the wrong slant about their_
_own language, says this collector of slang._
_He's separated the phony from the authentic_
by Morroe Berger
Lecturer in Contemporary Civilization, Columbia University
(Pg. 19, col. 2--ed.)
   Phony jazz slang, a language no one seems to speak, calls a drummer a _skin beater_, a trombone a _syringe_, a clarinet a _licorice stick_.  Musicians who are "warming up" (itself good slang) are _frisking their whiskers_.  (...)
   A SIMILAR comparison is easily made for Army talk.  On the phony side, beef is _tiger meat_, toilet paper is )bathroom stationery_, pancakes are _tire patches_--all cute and purposeless terms.  But soldiers actually used such superior slang phrases as: _sweat out_--wait for something anxiously; _latrine rumor_--a rumor of unreliable origin; _chew out_--reprimand so severely as almost to rip out a victim's hide.

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OOMPH GIRL

   Ann Sheridan graces the cover of the 30 May 1939 PIC.  The story is "THE BIRTH OF AN OOMPH GIRL":

   When twenty-five men unanimously bestowed the title of "Oomph Girl" on Ann Sheridan last month, there were no protests.  That the Earl of Warwick, Eddie Cantor, Lucius Beebe, George Hurrell, Busby Berkeley, and twenty others had made a perfect selection, nobody doubted.  There's no question--Ann is tops when it comes to "oomph," the modern title for sex appeal, the successor to "Vamp" and "It."

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PING GIRL

   Ping?  Schwing?
   From PIC, 29 October 1940, pg. 10:

   A HOLLYWOOD press agent gave to Carole Landis the mysterious title of "Ping Girl," an honor which she promptly repudiated as "nonsense."

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DONE WITH MIRRORS (continued)

   "IT'S ALL DONE WITH MIRRORS" is the title in PIC, 11 July 1939, pg. 11, col. 2.

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DOODLES (continued)

   OED has 1937.
   From PIC, 11 July 1939, pg. 40, col. 1:

_YANKEE DOODLES_
(...)  Two years (Col. 2--ed.) ago, Jane Butler, a psychology graduate from Cornell University, set herself up as a doodle analyst.  Since then, she has analyzed some 65,000 doodles taken from phone booths, menus and desk pads.

(Is this published anywhere?--ed.)

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NICE PLACE TO VISIT (continued)

   From PIC, 11 June 1940, pg. 26, col. 2:

   NEW YORKERS get pretty tired of being told "New York's all right.  It's a nice place to visit, but I'd never want to live here."

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PIE-ING (continued)

   From PIC, 9 January 1940, pg. 8:

_Pastry in the Puss_
CUSTARD-PIE ERA I (circa 1912) belonged to Mabel Normand and Buster Keaton.  These two specialized in gooey custard pies, thick with white meringue that splattered nicely.  Custard-Pie Era II, beginning in 1939, when Alice Faye got pie in her pan in "Hollywood Cavalcade," belongs to Lupe Velez and Linda Hayes.  They make an innovation, with mouth-watering French pastry, deep in whipped cream and strawberries.  The uproarious laughter that greeted Alice's face-smearing episodes in "Hollywood Cavalcade" doomed some Hollywood star to more of the same--and it would be our Lupe, the Mad Mex.  Linda is Lupe's stooge for the pastry pother in her next film, "Mexican Spitfire."

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MOTORCYCLE SOCCER

   "Motorcycle Soccer" is in PIC, 15 August 1944, pg. 45.  This supposedly goes back to the 1930s.

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SUICIDE CLUB (continued)

   From PIC, "Suicide Club," 1 August 1944, pg. 42, col. 2:

   That is one reason why the jockeys who ride in these races (steeplechasing--ed.) are often referred to as members of the "suicide club."

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"KEEP PUNCHING"

   From PIC, 8 May 1945, pg. 30:

_50-Year-Old Dempsey Still a Hero_

_Jack coined the phrase "Keep punching" and he has lived up to it in his career._

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PITCHING MACHINE

   Shown in PIC, 11 June 1940, pg. 34:

   With the co-operation of A. F. Howe, St. Louis inventor, (Byron--ed.) Moser devised this mechanical pitcher.

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DOUBLE FULL TWIST

   Not in OED.
   From PIC, 17 September 1940, pg. 3, col. 1:

SIRS:  Among gymnasts the "double full twist" is recognized as one of the most difficult of all tumbling feats, and one that often stumps the experts.  The accredited originator and one of the best performers of the feat is Roland Wolfe, of Dallas, Texas, of whom these pictures are taken.  Now living and owrking in Cleveland, Mr. WOlfe devotes every spare minute to his hobby, and practices tumbling at the Cleveland Y.M.C.A.  In 1932, at the age of sixteen years, Mr. Wolfe won the Olympic tumbling championship at San Francisco; he subsequently moved to Cleveland where he was graduated from Western Reserve University.  Now he works for a paper company and hopes someday to give his full time to the art of tumbling.  The inclosed pictures will give you some idea of the "double full twist."--CY WORTHINGTON, Cleveland, Ohio.

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JAPANAZI

   From PIC, 3 August 1943, pg. ?, col. 1:

_28_
_WAYS_
_TO
_KILL_
_A_
_JAPA-_
_NAZI_

(This is an ad for the book HAND-TO-HAND COMBAT, by Edward O'Donnell, who "taught jujitsu at Yale for twenty years."--ed.)

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MR. AND MRS. G. I. JOE

   One of many PIC cartoons is 7 November 1944, pg. 16.
   OED has 1842 for G. I. Joe--surely it is 1942??

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CAT WHISKERS

   RHHDAS has 1952.
   From the NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE, 1 July 1948, pg. 16, col. 8:

_"Cat Whiskers"_
_Replace Tubes_
_To Run Radio_
(...)
   Known as the "transistor," the device is about the size of a shoelace tip.
(...)
   When power is delivered to one of the contacts it is amplified 100 times over the surface of the germanium and carried to an output circuit by the other "cat's whisker."

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WIENIE ROAST

   Not in OED.
   From PIC, 15 October 1940, pg. 5:

_WIENIE ROAST_
(...)  The fires, they were told, are the campfires for hundreds of wienie roasts, California's newest sport.

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FRENCH ICE CREAM

   Not in OED?  There are 31, 600 hits on Google!
   From the NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE, 30 June 1948, pg. 14, col. 6:

_French Ice Cream Quintuplets in Debut Here_
(...)
   This was the Rosemarie de Paris way of announcing that her new French ice creams were ready for market, a quintuplet series, vanilla, chocolate, coffee, strawberry, pistachio.
   First taste of the moon-white  vanilla--but look again, notice the dark flecks of the vanilla bean scattered throughout the cream.  Top-grade Bourbon beans used for this, pounded fine, blended with the fresh eggs, the sugar--vanilla's fragrant sweetness lay like a mist between the nose and the spoon.  The taste lingered long after the last bite was gone.  It was vanilla all right, no deception here!