Philly food file

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   Clippings from the Temple University files.

HOAGIE
   23 September 1953, PHILADELPHIA EVENING BULLETIN:
   _More about the hoagie._--(A.H.)  Another legend of its origin is offered
by reader Fred P. who writes:  "About 1926 my mother had a grocery store in
South Philly near a railroad and hoboes used to buy these large Italian
sandwiches.  Since all hoboes were known to be 'on the hoke' it decame known
as a hoke sandwich; later as a hokie, and the name was finally changed to
hoagie."  This might be pure "hokum," or possibly appropriate.  The slang
"hoke" for a gentleman of the road comes down to us from hocus-pocus, via
hokey-pokey, a term for a juggler--possibly from Ochus Bochus, an early
magician.


OIL DRILLERS' LINGO
   16 May 1960, PHILADELPHIA EVENING BULLETIN:
_Oil Drillers' Lingo_
   New York, May 16--(UPI)--Judging by his lingo, the oild field driller has
a big appetite.  His semantic smorgasbord includes: appetizers (TNT); beans
(valves); cabbage (bearings); biscuits (rocks); apple butter (engine belt
dressing); donuts (round tubing); macaroni (big pipe); spaghetti (little
pipe); and catsup (red acid).


LET'S DO LUNCH
   11 October 1955, PHILADELPHIA EVENING BULLETIN:
   The latest bop talk requires you to say, of you like a musician, "Man's
he's real bad."  Or, "he blows bad."  This critical pronouncement is
delivered in a monotone, with the "b-a-a-a-d" dragged out for emphasis.
Means the exact opposite of what it says.  Means he's the greatest.
   The musician calls his instrument an "ax."  "They left their axes on the
stand."
   Music hipsters don't like: "Boom-chuck."
--------------------
   IN THE white-collar canyons of Manhattan, the smart-talk boys are almost
constantly "doing" some kind of "bit."  If they want to propose going to
lunch, they day: ":et's do the lunch bit."  If they see a motion picture,
they "do the movie bit."
   These people also are habitually "getting a fix" on things, phrase
presumably borrowed from navigation.  If one of these boys is in a muddle as
to how he and the girl friend are going to spend the evening, he says: "Let's
get a fix on this evening."
   The newest word for food is "scoff."  Dark eyeglasses are "shadows."  The
word for taking a break from the job, or whatever, is "split."  "Let's split
for some scoff."
   A bed is now a "pad."  "I was in the pad when the phone rang."