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[Ben Zimmer]

Thank you, Larry.

On Sun, Jan 4, 2026, 4:49 PM Laurence Horn <
00001c05436ff7cf-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> The Times today published this obituary in the print edition:
>
> https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/02/nyregion/dick-zimmer-dead.html <
> https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/02/nyregion/dick-zimmer-dead.html>
>
> Ben and Carl (whom as many of you know from his books and science pieces
> at the Times) make appearances in the Congressman’s obit.  In the photo
> you’ll recognize Dick Zimmer as—surprise!—an older version of Ben.  I
> hadn’t known the Yale legacy goes back another generation along with the
> resemblance.
>
> Condolences, Ben.
>
> LH
>
>
> > On Jan 4, 2026, at 2:40 PM, Ben Zimmer <
> 00001aae0710f4b7-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> wrote:
> >
> > The Hawthorne High School slang dictionary from '65 is online here (only
> > text, no page images):
> >
> > https://cougartown.com/slang-dict1.html (introduction)
> > https://cougartown.com/slang-dict2.html (includes "bummer" entry)
> >
> > On Sun, Jan 4, 2026 at 1:50 PM ADSGarson O'Toole <
> > 00001aa1be50b751-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
> >
> >> A 2006 edition of Partridge lists a 1965 date for "bummer". The
> >> citation points to a self-published dictionary of high school slang.
> >>
> >> Date: 2006 Copyright
> >> Title: The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English
> >> Volume 1: A - I
> >> Editor: Terry Victor; Senior Editor: Tom Dalzell
> >> Quote Page 295
> >> Publisher: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, London
> >> Database: Google Books Preview
> >>
> >> [Begin entry excerpt]
> >> bummer noun
> >> 2 a disappointing of depressing event US
> >> - Miss Cone, The Slang Dictionary (Hawthorne High School), 1965
> >> [End entry excerpt]
> >>
> >> [Begin bibliographical entry, Page 2167]
> >> Cone, Miss
> >> The Slang Dictionary (Hawthorne High School), self-published
> >> Hawthorne, California, 1965
> >> [End bibliographical entry]
> >>
> >> Ben Yagoda mentioned the instance of "bummer" in Thompson's "Hell's
> >> Angels". JL's Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang has
> >> pertinent entries for "bummer" on page 311 of volume 1. JL also lists
> >> "Hell's Angels" with a 1966 date.
> >>
> >> The May 1966 issue of McCall's Magazine contains the article by
> >> Pauline Kael which described "The Sound of Music" as "the sugarcoated
> >> lie that people seem to want to eat". That issue of McCall's Magazine
> >> is available in the Internet Archive. Below is a link. I did not see
> >> the word "bummer" in Kael's article. Rich Lowenthal also did not find
> >> "bummer" in a reprint of Kael's article.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> https://archive.org/details/sim_rosie_1966-05_93_8/page/154/mode/2up?q=sugarcoated
> >>
> >> Garson
> >>
> >> On Sun, Jan 4, 2026 at 2:13 AM ADSGarson O'Toole
> >> <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> Excellent citations, Fred. Based on the match you found I found the
> >>> same text in a newspaper that was published six days earlier. The
> >>> words were spoken by a person at "Whisky a-Go-Go" on the Sunset Strip.
> >>>
> >>> Date: October 24, 1966
> >>> Newspaper: San Francisco Chronicle
> >>> Newspaper Location: San Francisco, California
> >>> Article: As L.A. Goes It's Real Gone
> >>> Author: Arthur Hoppe
> >>> Quote Page 43, Column 5
> >>> Database: Newspapers.com
> >>>
> >>>
> >>
> https://www.newspapers.com/article/san-francisco-chronicle-bummer/188138504/
> >>>
> >>> [Begin excerpt]
> >>> Stepping into a typical, average establishment called "The Whisky
> >>> a-Go-Go," I spent two hours exhaustively interviewing such typical,
> >>> average voters as a little old boy in short pants and tennis shoes, a
> >>> lady in spangled trousers and matching halter and something in a
> >>> sailor suit, black net stockings and deerskin boots eating raisins.
> >>>
> >>> Unfortunately, my notes are few because I couldn't hear any answers
> >>> except when the band wasn't playing. But they include: "You trying to
> >>> put me on a bummer?" "Like it's a freak out, man." And, inevitably:
> >>> "What are you, some kind of nut?"
> >>> [End excerpt]
> >>>
> >>> The OED has another sense of "bummer" which is linked to LSD. The
> >>> first OED citation for this sense was from 1968. Below is a match in
> >>> November 1966.
> >>>
> >>> [Begin OED excerpt]
> >>> bummer noun
> >>> 2. An unpleasant or distressing (psychological) experience caused by
> >>> taking a hallucinogenic drug (especially LSD). Cf. bad trip n., bum
> >>> trip n.
> >>> [End OED excerpt]
> >>>
> >>> Date: November 18, 1966
> >>> Newspaper: Berkeley Daily Gazette
> >>> Newspaper Location: Berkeley, California
> >>> Article: A Reporter's Quest: How Users Look at LSD -- Glorious,
> Dangerous
> >>> Quote Page 12, Column 3
> >>> Database: Newspapers.com
> >>>
> >>>
> >>
> https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-berkeley-gazette-bummertrip/188139241/
> >>>
> >>> [Begin excerpt]
> >>> "I think it's like this," said the 20-year-old collegion after the
> >>> first "bummer" trip had passed from his mind for the very first time,
> >>> "LSD is a poison in your system attacks your mind.
> >>> [End excerpt]
> >>>
> >>> Garson
> >>>
> >>> On Sat, Jan 3, 2026 at 8:41 PM Shapiro, Fred
> >>> <00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> bummer (OED 1967)
> >>>>
> >>>> 1966 Chula Vista Star-News 30 Oct. 12/4 (Californis Digital Newspaper
> >> Collection)  You trying to put me on a bummer.
> >>>>
> >>>> 1966 College Times (California State University, Los Angeles) 16 Dec.
> >> 5/3 (JSTOR)  When they're playing games and you're not, it's kind of a
> >> bummer.
> >>>>
> >>>> Fred Shapiro
> >>>>
> >>
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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