noncents

[Wilson Gray]

On 10/31/07, Landau, James <James.Landau at ngc.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Landau, James" <James.Landau at NGC.COM>
> Subject:      noncents
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I have in front of me two restaurant menus.
>
> One is from the Bonefish Grill, which is a chain with six restaurants in
> New Jersey (bonefishgrill.com).
> The menu contains:
>      Bang Bang Shrimp  $8.5
>      Mussels Josephine  $8.8
>      Ahi Tuna Sashimi    half $8.8  full $14.9
>      Grouper Piccata  $19.5
>      Diablo Shrimp Fettuccine   $13.2
>      Tenderloin Portabella Piccata  $14.2
>      Lily's Chicken  $13.5
>      Fontina Chops  $13.9
>      Sirloin Steak 10 ounce  $13.9  (add Garlic Gorgonzola butter $1.5)
>
> That is, all prices on the menu are in true decimal, in tenths of a
> dollar rather than in cents (hundredths of a dollar).
>
> The other menu is from the Joy Luck Palace, a Chinese restaurant which
> just reopened, under a different name (it used to be the China Buffet),
> after remodeling.
>
> All prices on the menu are in dollars with no decimal point, e.g.=20
>     Egg Drop Soup.............2
>     Hot and Sour Soup........3
>     Egg Roll......................2
>     Sweet and Sour Pork.....9
>     Moo Shu Pork..............9
>     Beef with Broccoli........10
>     Sauteed Steak Kew......15
>
> These prices seem a little high to me, and I don't know if it's because
> they are in unit dollars and I would be more comfortable with Egg Drop
> Soup for $1.50 and Moo Shu Pork for $8.95
>
> Has anyone else seen this phenomenon of not using traditional dollars
> and cents?  Is this the beginning of a new trend?
>
> (I have seen one related example: on West Wing there was an episode on
> which Josh Lyman had to deal with a proposal to demonetarize the penny.)
>
> OT to Bill Mullins:  you say
>
> My wife, on the other hand, has about thirty words for green.  Some
> things are taupe (which, like "whomever", is a made up word designed to
> catch you in error).  Also mauve (which may be the same as taupe, for
> all I know).

Back in the 'Fifties and 'Sixties, taupe was one of the colors used
for parts of the uniforms worn by the U.S. military, e.g. raincoats,
for example, in the case of men and women, and stockings and garter
belts, in the case of women. In other words, once was a time when
"taupe" was a word of everyday use, at least among those who were, or
who had spent time in, the military.

Isn't "taupe" the French word for "mole," the rodent?

-Wilson

>      According to MWCD10 page 1207 column 2, taupe is "a brownish gray".
> Note that M-W says this flatly without saying, as they sometimes do with
> colors, "chartreuse: a variable color averaging a brilliant yellow
> green".  Mauve, on the other hand, is a specific color, that of the
> aniline dye mauveine, discovered serendipitously by William Perkins in
> 1856.  (For more information see
> http://dept.kent.edu/museum/exhibit/colors/3.htm).
>
> OT to Barry Popik:  you quoted:
>
> 2 July 1957, Nevada State Journal (Reno, NV), "Rodeo Has Paid Shoulders
> Generously in His Career; Riding Champ Hopes to Quit By Next Year," pg.
> 3, col. 1:
> "I've been trampin' around this suicide circuit for a long time."
>
> That's how Jim Shoulders, the man who won more money last year than any
> other cowboy in the history of rodeo, sums up a career that has paid him
> better than a quarter million dollars in ten years.
>
>      Is there a mistake here?  A quarter million in ten years is only
> $25,000 per year, which was good but not spectacularly great back in
> 1957 (the equivalent of between $100K and $150K in today's dollars.)
>
>     James A. Landau
>     test engineer
>     Northrop-Grumman Information Technology
>     8025 Black Horse Pike, Suite 300
>     West Atlantic City  NJ  08232  USA
>
>    =20
> ~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^=20
> GZTWP PPKSZ YZTRV NAZTI EJONB=20
> SZFPQ RUBGX PLZYG YAIXJ SZRCT=20
> ZZAAW LAKOK TQRZA HHNFH JHFNF=20
> GZBPG=20
> ^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^=20
>
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>


--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
                                              -Sam'l Clemens

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