the toll of inflation

[Victor]

A quick check found anything from a quarter to "a couple of bucks" $5,
the latter with the obligatory reference to Starbucks.

The more interesting one was
http://everything2.com/title/That%2520and%2520a%2520quarter%2520gets%2520you%2520a%252025%2520cent%2520cup%2520of%2520coffee
That and a quarter gets you a 25 cent cup of coffee

You can always trust the Daily News to state the obvious.
www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2008/12/24/2008-12-24_boston_reaction_to_yankees_signing_mark_.html
That and a handful of nickels will get you a quarter.

What's interesting is that even Brewer's Famous Quotations (2006, p.418)
has suffered from inflation. Under Shakespeare, you find,
This passion, and death of a dear friend, would go near to make a man
look sad.
V.i.277, Theseus. A forerunner of the modern format 'that and a___ will
get you ___', an American expression of the obvious where the object
mentioned is clearly of no value: 'That, _and a dollar_, will get you a
cup of coffee', That, and a token, will get you on a subway'...


I've heard more pragmatic variations on the street, such as "that and
ten bucks will get you into a movie", or something to that effect. But,
the far more common type of expression is inflation-proof (although some
may exhibit anachronisms, like telephone books, PacMan, etc.). An
example of that--also quickly becoming archaic--is the "token" in the
Brewer's.

www.metafilter.com/77606/Its-all-caviar-and-ballons-until-someone-backhands-a-cop
"That and a firehose will get you a movie deal"

www.suite101.com/article.cfm/real_estate/44697
I firmly believe that the simple most important characteristic feature
of a successful agent is common sense--that and a telephone will get you
a long way!

www.capnwacky.com/flotsam/flotsam102607.html
Yeah, well that and a cherry will get you a hundred points.

tv.yahoo.com/show/36001/news/urn:newsml:tv.entertainmentweekly.com:20090206:TV-20257378__ER:1
That and a chainsaw will get you everywhere, I suppose.

http://www.webmasterworld.com/databases_sql_mysql/3538332.htm
Something that I did while learning was use the Access query builder,
then I would look at the SQL it outputted and made some sense of it that
way... that and a good book will get you a long way.







George Thompson wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
> Subject: the toll of inflation
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Something put into mind recently that when young I and my friends
> would dismiss something -- as for instance, a degree with a major in
> English Literature -- by saying "that and a nickel will get you"
> something that cost a nickel -- I recall a newspaper, a glass of coke
> and a cup of coffee. Even then -- about 1960 -- it was getting hard to
> think of something that in fact cost only a nickel, and before I had
> graduated with a major in English Literature we were obliged to say
> "that and a dime. . . ."
>
> Somehow, saying "that and $1.50" will get you. . . ." lacks punch. How
> do the young-uns today express this thought?
>
> In any event, searching Proquest for That and a nickel/five cents/a
> dime/ten cents/a penny suggests that the thought is not as old as I
> would have supposed.
> Victory in the Grapefruit Circuit usually doesn't mean much. That and
> a nickel still will get you on the subway. NYTimes, March 22, 1946, p.
> 30. Arthur Daley's column.
> [referring to a boxing championship] That and a dime will get either
> of them in the subway. . . . NYTimes, May 30, 1951, p. 31. Also Arthur
> Daley's column.
>
>
>
> George A. Thompson
> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
> Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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