Another one bites the dust?

[Wilson Gray]

The other day, my wife was asking me about my choice in doughnuts.
"French crullers?" Out of them. Okay then, glazed. But don't forget to
ask for "honey-dipped" and not "glazed." Otherwise, they won't know
what you want." "Yes, they will. It's what's on the sign in the
window."

After I arrived in the Boston in 1972, I found an apartment across the
street from the largest doughnuts-only shop that I have ever seen. I
asked for an order of glazed doughnuts. No staff-member knew what I
was talking about. When I pointed them out, they said, "Oh! You mean
"honey-dipped!" I soon discovered that everywhere that I went, even to
Dunkin' Donuts, after its expansion into the 'hood put the mom-&-pop
specialty store out of business, I had to ask for "honey-dipped," if I
wanted glazed.

Now, that clearly is no longer the case.

The "spa" has been replaced first by the "convenient[sic] store," then
by the "convenience store"; "cleansers" has been replaced by
"cleaners" (though Coolidge Cleansers is still in business in
Cambridge), and now, "glazed" is pushing out "honey-dipped." Another
bit of linguistic local color is dying out.

OTOH, I know personally an actual living, breathing person who
continues to use "tawnic" and not "soda." But even he is only a hapax.

-Wilson

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.
-----
-Mark Twain

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