Sock Juice; Osteria; Mellah/Ghetto

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

SOCK JUICE

   From the WALL STREET JOURNAL, 10 May 2002, pg. B1, col. 2:

_Ah, Paris: Strolling ALong the Seine, Sipping "Totally Toffee"_

_Foamy, Sweet U. S. Coffee Drinks,_
_Slurped on the Go, Are Taking Off:_
_No More Sneers About "Sock Juice"?_
(...)
(Col. 4--ed.)
   People here have a name for the hot filtered coffee Americans consume from cardboard containers: _jus de chausettes_.  Sock Juice.  "It's brown-colored water.  No wonder they can drink three or four in a row.  It's so weak," sniffs Jose Nevado, a 30-year-old Parisian businessman.

(Grant Barrett, does this ring true of Paris?--ed.)

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OSTERIA

   From NEW YORK magazine, 13 May 2002, pg. 88, col. 1:

   LIKE ANY SUCCESSFUL IMPRESARIO, Stephen Hanson has a knack for creating an audience.  His restaurants (like Blue Fin, Park Avalon, Ruby Foo's) are elaborately themed, like Broadway shows, and most of them open big and run forever.  The latest is called _Fiamma_, which means "flame" in Italian.  Fiamma is supposed to be an osteria--the Italian equivalent of a casual bistro.  Only at this particular osteria, there are 40 Barolo wines on the wine list, 34 of which cost over $100.

(OED has "osteria" from about 1605.  However, it meant an "inn" or place of lodging, not a bistro.  Check the news databases.  Is Hanson re-popularizing "osteria" and changing its meaning?--ed.)

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MELLAH/GHETTO

   I checked Lancelot Addison's 1675 work on BARBARY JEWS on Early English Books Online (OED spotted the "mazel tov" here--and did it see "ben mitzvah"?).  I was shocked that I didn't find "mellah."
   The Fez Jewish confinement place called "mellah" started in the 1430s, but OED has it from about 1800.  The Venice Jewish confinement place called "ghetto" started in the 1510s, and OED has it in the 1610s.
   I have to find an earlier "mellah."  Why wasn't it in Addison?