Out to Lunch & Ate Him for Breakfast (1953); The Big Picture

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OUT TO LUNCH

   The RHHDAS is "out to lunch" with 1955 SCIENCE DIGEST.
   From John Crosby's RADIO AND TELEVISION, "Buy It--Try It--Today!", NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE, 15 March 1953, section 4, pg. 1, col. 2:

   At this time, I propose only to give you the benefit of my forward thinking (or rather Madison Avenue's forward thinking) on the subject of agency talk.
   You want to dust a guy off lightly but thoroughly?  "That guy is strictly out to lunch."  That'll put him in his place.  Want to do the same thing in spades?  "That guy is done for the day."  Or suppose your point of view has just triumphed over that of a rival.  The proper way to say it: "We ate him for breakfast."
   When the whole staff is pooling what passes for their brains in order to hammer out some great idea like "No squat--No stoop--No squint!", one way of putting it is: "We have got everybody in bed with this."  In the life of every ad man comes the day, sometimes a good many of them, when he outsmarts himself.  "I'm afraid I techniqued myself out of it," he will moan.  Or suppose he is boasting that he's as smart as that new man any day, including odd Wednesdays.  "I can match him muscle for muscle anytime."

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THE BIG PICTURE (continued)

   From John Crosby's RADIO AND TELEVISION, NYHT, 5 April 1953, section 4, pg. 1, col. 5:

   _The Big Picture_
(...)(Col. 6--ed.)
   That, as I see it, is what the boys in the trade call the big picture--and not a very pretty one.  At the moment, though, I am indifferent to television's problems.  Directly, after I finish this, I'm off to Europe for a month's vacation.  It's just possible that television will have blown over by the time I get back.

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TELEVISION NECK

   From John Crosby's R&T, "Joy Scouts, Television Neck and Perfumed Ink," NYHT, 6 March 1953, pg. 19, col. 2:

   In layman's language, television neck is caused by staring up at or down at the TV screen or twisting the neck to see it.