"Padiddle drivers of America"; and "beater" (= jalopy)

[Gerald Cohen]

    An editorial in today's _St. Louis Post-Dispatch_ (March 15, 2003,
p.30, cols. 2-3) contains the word "padiddle," which can only be
slang but doesn't appear in the standard slang dictionaries of
Wentworth-Flexner or Jonathon Green. _HDAS_ of course is stalled at
the letter O and so can't be consulted. By context, "padiddle drivers
of America" seems to mean "jalopy drivers of America."

     The editorial titled "The judge and the jalopy" is light-hearted
and even contains a cartoon: a policeman with a scowl is handing out
a parking ticket. Here is the editorial, with padiddle coming as the
first word of the third paragraph:

    "We've seen women's lib and gay lib.  Now, finally, a liberation
movement that deserves cheers from everyone who's spent a Saturday
afternoon under the tail end of a 1971 Pinto, twisting coat hangers
around the muffler pipe.  Call it Jalopy Lib.

     In Belleville there lives a man--a retired judge, even--who will
stand up for the rights of people still rattling around in cars from
the Age of Disco.

     "Padiddle drivers of American have found their champion:  William
B. Starnes, retired judge of the St. Clair County Court.

     "Mr. Starnes is suing the town of Swansea for more than $1.5
million for violating his civil rights.  He says its police officers
pulled him over because he was driving a 1975 Chevrolet Caprice
convertible.

      "This was 'socioeconomic discrimination,' he says, based on the
'antiquity' of his car.

     "According to Judge Starnes, the cop assumed that the car must be
driven by 'someone poor, or young, or both, and hence likely to
commit a crime.'  The judge says his subsequent arrest was
'malicious, evil, reprehensible, and totally without justification,'

     "Cops say the judge left out a few details--such as the illegal
turn, and crossing the center of the road and drunken driving (which
the judge denies).

     "The news is out: even judges drive old cars.  After all, 1975
Caprice convertibles in fine condition are advertised for $11,000, or
more.  One man's old beater is another's classic. It's time beater
drivers go a little respect."

***

    Note also "beater" (= jalopy) in the last two sentences--a term I don't find
in either HDAS or Jonathon Green's dictionary of slang. Do these two
terms deserve recognition as standard slang items, or is their use
too limited for this?

Gerald Cohen