anachronisms?

[Laurence Horn]

At 3:30 PM -0400 7/7/02, Mark A Mandel wrote:
>On Sun, 7 Jul 2002, Dave Wilton wrote:
>
>#"Pie" is used by non-Italians. Short for "pizza pie" or "tomato pie." (This
>#last is an old usage. I haven't heard it since my early childhood, but you
>#can still see painted signs advertising "tomato pies" on the Jersey Shore.)
>
>Here in Framingham, Mass. (between Boston and Worcester), there's a
>place called "Ty's Pies" whose products, to my disappointment, are
>pizza, not pastry.
>
Speaking of pizza (we called them "pizza pies" in NYC in the 50's)--
I saw "A Beautiful Mind" last night and wondered about a couple of
possible anachronisms, although as much sociological as linguistic.
In the late 40's (1948, I believe) in Princeton, NJ, would it be
likely for one student to ask another whether he wanted to go out for
pizza (with no explanation)?  In fact the implication is that a
student just arrived at Princeton from West Virginia would
immediately recognize pizza as what you go out for, which seems
unlikely to me. And would it be likely for a young lady to vilify a
young not-quite-gentleman as "Asshole" for his impertinent behavior?
RHHDAS has a relevant cite from Mailer's _The Naked and the Dead_
from the same period, but I suspect it was more likely to have
circulated in this era among soldiers than the grad students in
mathematics (and their women friends) depicted in the film.

larry