Grab-handle or Strap in Car, etc.

[Page Stephens]

For the life of me I cannot remember anyone calling the damned things
anything at all.

This is perhaps due to the fact that in my youth my father could only afford
to drive Plymouths, and you only found these straps on higher priced cars.

I do remember a reference to them in one of Rex Stout's Nero Wolf novels in
which Wolf held onto one for dear life since he was mortally afraid of any
form of machinery and was convinced that every automobile was about to
crash.

If anyone has the energy to read the entire series of Nero Wolf novels -- a
delightful experience -- they might be able to date this reference.

Page "too poor to afford a car with a strap" Stephens

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jonathan Lighter" <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2004 9:02 AM
Subject: Re: Grab-handle or Strap in Car, etc.


> ---------------------- Information from the mail
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Grab-handle or Strap in Car, etc.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
>
> Thanks, Mark.  That's a new one.
>
> The first of these that I encountered was "shit handle," in 2000.  My
source, an emeritus professor, assured me he had heard it during WWII.
>
> I have no confirmatory evidence that any of these terms was in use so
early as that, but as Dayton Allen used to say, "WHHHHHHYYYYY NOT?"
>
> JL
>
> "Mark A. Mandel" <mamandel at LDC.UPENN.EDU> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail
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> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: "Mark A. Mandel"
> Subject: Re: Grab-handle or Strap in Car, etc.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
>
> For me, occasionally and once upon a time, the "oh-my-God bar". But I
can't
> remember where I heard it.
>
> -- Mark A. Mandel
> [This text prepared with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.]
>
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