Holy Mondegreen Batman!

Hi Woodsy,

the recent Moonbase post on the Ideal Toys Beverley hillbillies truck has put the TV show theme song in my head again.

As a kid I always thought Jed was

"...a former mountaineer" and worst of all, in the closing song I thought the word "Stallenfell" was just something I hadn't heard of, as opposed to "Stay a spell"

It turns out there's a name for misinterpreting song lyrics, it's called Mondegreen.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondegreen

The most hilarious example is my wife who, for decades thought the Theme from Shaft included the line "He's a carpet movin' man, but no one understands him like his wooooman..."!

Do you suffer from Mondegreens Moonbasers?

Looey

Oz

You're Going to Need a Bigger Snowclone

A snowclone is a modernish figure of speech involving a play on old and new famous phrases and slogans.

Examples include In Space no-one Can Hear You ....., whereby you replace scream with whatever you want. Burp, Yawn, Snore, eat pasta etc.

My favourite snowclone, largely because it's so darn handy, is Chief Brody's memorable (or should that be memable!) Jaw line, We're Going to Need A Bigger ..... And yes, you've got it, the word Boat can be anything to suit your current needs eg. Blog, post, moat, budget etc.

Have you a snowclone in mind?

Surf's You Right

 I've been browsing through Classic Plastic, the modelling reference book and drooling over the surfing kits like Hawks

There's a few words that crop up in that and other books that I'm unsure about.

I can roughly guess, but does anyone what they actually mean?

Hep

Hodad

Hipster

Hang Ten

Bat Fink

Shooting the breeze

Surfs up

Hot Dogger

Surfari

Wipeout

Beach bum

Curl

Rip

Dude

SLANG FROM LANCASHIRE IN THE NINETEEN SIXTIES AND SEVENTIES

Here are a few slang words and activities I've dragged up from the chlorinated deep end of my Youth in the Sixties and Seventies. You'll know many more and have your own from your country. These are all from growing up in Lancashire, England. There are some that are too unsavoury to print but these are what's left!

Loo, Khazi, Bog, Throne room - toilet

Privvy - outside loo

Rag - newspaper

Cow Bite - a firm grip on the inner thigh, the then hard squeezing was agony! My brothers' favourite.

Snake Bite - two hands gripping the forearm and a counter twist created excruciating pain! The other older Brother's favourite!

Rib Drill - whilst being pinned down on your back, a single knuckle would be drilled into the middle of the breastbone. A killer! Both older brothers' specialty. 

Hickey, Love Bite - extreme mouth suction on one side of the neck creating nasty-looking bruised circles. A token of love that was everywhere in my school! Yuk!

Greeny, Grolly - a large blob of  verdant phlegm plastered on the ground

Bogey - nostril waste - as in Pickit, Lickit, Rollit, Flickit!

Crusty - hardened nostril waste

AA, Business, Biz, Numbers, Kack, Sh*t, Sh*te, - a poo, poo

Meat and Two Veg, Short and Curlies, Goolies, Gonads - the male testicles, to be protected at all costs during a skirmish with bad 'uns!

Shreddies, Underkecks, Grundies, Y-Fronts - underpants, usually white.

Skidmark - an unsavoury streak in the middle of your usually white shreddies

Tidemark - an unsavoury line on the neck denoting a lack of washing either above or below it.

Kick the Can - a game in which cans or footballs where kicked and collected whilst everyone else ran off never to be seen again.

Right on - righteous, as in Right On Man! That's groovy!

far Out - astonishing, as in That Tank Top is far out Mate!

Mate, Flower , Darlin, Love, Chuck - terms of introduction and endearment [ In Yorkshire: Cocker]

Pencil pusher - office worker

Lazy B*stard - a fellow prone to slacking

Idle Swine - a Lazy B*stard

Tosspot, W*nker, A*sehole, A*separt, Tw*t, See You Next Tuesday - a bad 'un or very nasty person

Cretin, Idiot, R*tard, Spaz, Sh*t for Brains, Twerp, Berk, numpty, Dope - all suggesting a lack of grey matter

Docile, Dopey - not one for fast movements.

Scalliwag - skeleton

Twit - a scatterbrained fellow

Talent, Crackling - the opposite sex, usually at the school disco.

Honey, Honey Pie, Sugar Pie, Tata Pie, Kidney Bean - what my older Sisters called me

Squirt, Little Squirt, Worm, Annoying Little Turd, Sp*nkbubble - what my older Brothers called me

Wiz, Waz, Pee, P*ss, Slash - to urinate, usually at the back of an old building in the Seventies

Spuggy, Bubbly, Chuddy - chewing gum, Anglo Bubbly being the go-to chew for kids my age

Clobber - clothes

Kecks - trousers

Herbert - an annoying person, as in He's a right Herbert

Belm, Thomas - a lie

Prannock, Pillock - a very annoying person

Bovver, Aggro - hostile goings-on

Cake Hole, Mush, Gob - the mouth

Soft, Mighty - a good thing

Split, Skidaddle - as in, to leave the school disco quickly because you've danced with someone else's bird!

Kaboodle, Tackle - stuff

Fettle - to sort something out

Second Shelf - hidden away, as in Up my A*se, Second Shelf

Pushiron - bicycle

Pad, Joint - a place, as in You're Wrecking the Joint.

Fleapit - old cinema

Flicks - cinema of any sort

Flick - a film

Wrinklies, Giffers, Oldies, Geriatrics - old folks, like me now!

TV, telly, box, Tellybox - the television

Wireless - the radio

Nosh, Scran, Tuck, 'Owt Yummy - food of any kind, preferably steak pudding and chips.

Dosh, Spondoolis - cash for things like Led Zep's latest LP

Schrapnel - small change for things like vending machines and bus fare's up town

Dweeb, Dork, Nerd, Geek - all words that came much much later from American TV.

Poser - someone showing off, usually with some very nice 'clobber' and a decent hairstyle

Bird - girlfriend

Get Stuffed, Get Lost, Get Stretched - as in No Way, You're kidding!

Pitch n Toss - chucking coins or cards against a wall to see who could get closest to it

Garden Hopping - sneaking through neighbours' gardens at night

Skool, Skoo - yep, school. the best days of your life and all that.

Deck - record player

Tunes, Sounds - music

Sound - good, as in He's Sound as a Pound that Jimmy Page.

Chavvers - young lad

Kushti - as in its all good

Toerag - a rotten person

Tw*t him - as in give him a good whalloping

A Good Hiding, A good Pasting - being beaten up, being tw*tted.

Clip round the Ear - a swift smack on the lughole usually by Mum or Dad, but basically anyone in the Seventies, as all adults seemed to smack us poor kids!

Lughole - ear

The Strap - corporal punishment in School consisting of a length of rubber brought down fast on the open palm .... at least it wasn't the cane or birch at our school, maybe because it was Catholic!

Redneck - catholic

Proddydog - protestant

Gaffer - boss

Elbow Grease, Hard Graft - all forms of toil and irksome work

Kip - sleep

Forty Winks - a short nap ....

Good idea, I shall have forty winks myself right now!

Which of these and other words do you recall readers?

WHO INVENTED THE TERM MERCHANDISING?

 Me and the Missus watched the modern movie ELVIS last night, which we enjoyed. 

The leading man playing the King was simply amazing. O Huh huh!

However, it was something the Colonel said that caught my ear.

He described putting Elvis's face on everything; pillows, drinks, bags, games etc.

He then said 

"I call it Mer-chan-dis-ing!" emphasising each syllable; inventing the word.

Is this true? Did Colonel Parker invent the word 'Merchandising'?

Surely, there were many American icons older than Elvis that had lots of marketing: Captain Video, Roy Rogers, Frank Sinatra, Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon to name a few.

In 1995 I got a book on Space Adventure Collectables, which is more or less half-full of very early TV and radio marketing and premiums. Did they not describe this as merchandise in the 1930's 40's and 50's?

What the ...... ?

I'm familiar with SNAFU; less so with FUGAZI and have no idea what a word I recently keep seeing on eBay means: SOFUBI.

Any ideas?

VINTAGE?

Further to your recent comments on the meaning of the word Vintage, here are a couple of die-cast model cars from my collection.

The red Shelby Cobra has Vintage Car on the box; while the small Auto World 1962 Chevrolet Impala says Vintage Muscle on the backing card. Both real cars are from the 1960s. Technically, Vintage cars are those made between 1919 and the end of 1930.

In the world of toys, Vintage now seems to cover all of the 20th Century - even early 21st Century toys are being listed on various sales sites as Vintage. Some are not even 20 years old.

Paul Adams from New Zealand

COVERED WAGONS

I was looking through some of your old posts, on Odd Words, especially those relating to vehicles. One term that has always struck me as strange is the British meaning of "Covered Wagon". 

Its something I always associate with the Wild West. Probably because of all those Westerns on TV [see today's Roy Rogers Lunch Box post].

In Britain, Wagon or Waggon appears to be another term for truck or lorry, although it now seems to have died out. It is usually a goods vehicle with an open-topped back, for carrying various loads.

A Covered Wagon has a canvas tilt over the back, supported by metal hoops, to provide some protection from the weather. Nothing to do with Prairie Schooners.

Dinky seemed to be especially fond of model Covered Wagons, and produced several. Just take your standard open truck model, and add a tinplate or plastic tilt. A new model, with a minimum of effort or expense.

The photographs show the Dinky 413 Austin Covered Wagon; and the Dinky 623 Army Covered Wagon (which is a Bedford). Both are from 1954, and have a tinplate Cover over the rear.

Two photographs from Worthpoint.

Paul Adams from New Zealand

Vintage Cars - Not Very Old At All!

Further to the comments on the word Vintage earlier.

The Vintage Sports Car Club was established in Britain in 1934. They defined a Vintage car as one built between 1919, when civilian motor car production resumed in Britain following WW1; and the end of 1930. Modern cars, anything built after 1931, were excluded.

That means that when the club was formed in 1934, a Vintage car was no older than 15 years, and might be only four years old. Nothing was even close to 20 years old.

Veteran cars were built up to the end of 1904; and Edwardian cars between 1905 and either the start of WW1 in 1914, the end of civilian motor car production in Britain during the war, or the end of the war in 1918. King Edward VII reigned from 1901 to 1910, so none of these dates match.

Are you as confused as I am ?

Paul Adams from New Zealand

ANTIQUE?

You mentioned the word Vintage recently.

Max from Max's Models in the US saw a 1980's car with Antique car number plates. It seems that in America an Antique car is generally one that is 45 years old, but this does vary from state to state.

In Florida, where Max lives, the age limit for an Antique car is only 25 years. That means a car from 1998 is already an Antique!

Is this the experience of other American readers too?

Paul Adams

New Zealand

THE MEANING OF VINTAGE

Recently I was talking about He-Man toys from the Eighties to a mate and he said 'they're not vintage!'

My mate is in his mid-fifties and to him vintage means the toys he grew up with: Action Man, Dinky, Corgi, Merit, Spears and the like. Certainly not He-Man.

It made me realise that the word vintage is relative and a movable feast. To anyone who played with He-Man toys as a kid and is now in their early Forties - to them He-Man will be vintage. It was the start of any toys for them. I suppose a JR21 Thunderbird 2 would be an antique! 

So, what do you think vintage means and is it to do with what we first played with?

Does it actually have any meaning?

A FEW MODERN WORDS

Here's some modern words which are either meaningless, elusive or just plain annoying. Again, no googling or dictionaries involved.

Pack: anything put together in a folder or a plastic wallet becomes a pack. The 80's were chock full with packs and they're still around. Almost without meaning.

Resource: anything that can be placed in a pack. Maps, cuttings, instructions, tickets, anything. Resource pack was my middle name in the 80's and now its plain annoying.

Manspreading: an unpleasant name for men standing with their legs apart. I don't manspread and don't use the word.

Double down: a Trumpism which has gone viral. It means to focus on something so why not just say that?

Yaw: a technical word, which I do like the sound of. I think it means to twist. Used in aeronautical circles.

Tare: possibly means volume. Often seen on lorries on motorways.

App: I still think an app is simply a program with a shortcut.

Life-hack: isn't this just a practical tip like the ones Grandparents told you?

Search it up: why up? Why not just search for something online, why search it up?

More to come.

OXYMORONIC

The first real oxymoron I was aware of was cold fire in David Bowie's Prettiest Star.

But there are loads in common speech. Have a gander at the above. Sorry for blurriness.

Do you now any more oxymorons readers?

DO YOU KNOW?

What does OOAK mean in the world of collecting? I've just had to look it up! Now I know. Do you readers?

BLIMEY, THAT'S TECHNICAL!

I was thinking about how I used to copy cassette tapes for my friends back in the day. I used tape to tape on my Matsui cassette player. Here are a few more 'technical' words from my youth. Please add more in the comments!

Taping
tape to tape - taping from one cassette to another. it could be done at twice the speed too
graphic equaliser - getting the music tone right using five sliding buttons
bass boost - boosting the bass
dubbing - not sure what this was
counter - it counted where you were on the cassette tape, which we then wrote down religiously on the tape card sleeve i.e. timings.

Video
Tracking - trying to get the picture right using the remote
Cue - I was never sure what this was
Letterbox - a frame around the picture
V2000 - early video format that lost out to VHS
Betamax - early video format that lost out to VHS
Clamshell - puffed plastic video case that opened like a book
Big Box - early and larger plastic video cases, often clamshells


Record Player
Separates - different components of the system from different makers
Wharfdales - the best speakers around
Run out groove - the smooth collar at the end of the record
Stereo - either referred to double sound or the type of device - a stereo may have had a record player and a cassette player in it too.
music centre - record player, cassette player and record rack
gramaphone - old version of music centre
stylus - needle
Emitex - top brand of record cleaning cloth

TODDLER TALK

Watching toddler Moonbase grandson grow up is full of humour.

His way of saying things is just wonderful and amusing. here are a few of his sayings:

1. Clandle - candle

2. Stumbletrip - trip over

3. Ouchey - sore

4. Bythelieo' the moo - By the light of the moon [from The Hungry Caterpillar]

5. Pancays - Pancakes

6. Tickler - comfort rag

Did you say any funny stuff when you were a kid? Hard to remember I know. The only two I recall are:

1. Draclia - Dracula

2. Ambliance - Ambulance

GEEK SALAD MOONSHOT

Its been a year of new thingies.

New words and idea thingies.

Some have been received from the distant past and some from modern young minds.

Whilst watching the movie Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein I heard a word I knew from another arena. It popped up while the short one was unpacking Frankenstein's monster. He picked up some packaging and said 'Excelsior!'. 

Now, my own knowledge of this word comes entirely from Stan Lee. he signed off his editorials with Excelsior so I was surprised to hear it said in an old black and white Universal movie.

Looking it up it turns out that Excelsior is a US brand name for wood wool, a form of soft shavings used in packing crates such as the one containing the monster! I wonder if anyone uses it for Ebay stuff?

We live and learn!

I lived and learned more when a youngster told me about two primitive beasts I was unaware of: the Titanoboa and Gigantopithecus blacki.

The Titanoboa was a colossal snake of knee-trembling proportions. Up to 42 feet long the monster was the largest snake that ever slithered. Fortunately it slithered 60 million years ago!

Gigantopithecus blacki was equally impressive. At 10 feet tall, this ancient Orang Utan was the biggest primate that ever rubbed its chin. There is evidence that it brushed up against Home erectus, our own distant relative in an early reality version of Planet of the Apes!

Completing this smattering of new words is vog. Its a mash-up of volcano and smog and describes the sulfuric mist arising from volcanic explosions. Not to be confused with vlog, which is a video blog. 

Similarly, Laze is the name for the clouds of gas rising up from lava hitting the sea. Its a mash-up of lava and haze. Not to be confused with lazy, which is how I feel most Sundays!

The final word is about ideas. Its Moonshot. Or I should say a Moonshot. Taken from the Apollo moon landing, its now apparently used by the business and innovation worlds to capture their far-thinking notions. Ideas that shape the bright jet-pack future, planning that makes us wear sunglasses and gasp, projects that engineer blue skies floating above the drudgery of now. They are all Moonshots or Moonshot thinking. Google have a department called X doing just that.

I wonder what your Moonshots are readers?

From a living and learning aging geek I leave you with but one word, which I'm surely unfit to use:

Excelsior!

YOUTH WORDS 1970

Continuing the blog's occasional look at youth culture, here are a few more words from my own youth in Lancashire in the Sixties. Rather than dialect I have gone for words young people like me and my mates used.

Hicky - a kiss-bite usually on the neck
snog - kiss
Neckin - lot of snoggin
Greaser - motorbiker
Mod - stylish soul youth
Rocker - like a Greaser
Headbanger - lover of heavy rock music
Zit - spot
Wuss - wimp
Wimp - softee
Hard - tough as is how hard is he really?
Bird - girlfriend
Crop - haircut
swat - nerd
Kecks - trousers
Togs - clothes
Clobber - more clothes
Brew - cup of tea
Scran, nosh, grub - food
Belm - tell a fib
Thom - tell another fib
Herbert - numpty
Talent - good looking guys and gals
Fit - good lookin
Band - group 
Peevish - mean
Boilin - hot
Corporation Pop - water
Spuggy, chuddy - chewing gum

Can you add any more?

SOME CHRISTMAS WORDS

So readers, the third Sunday of Advent is wending its way towards us. We still haven't trimmed up at Moonbase as extra-Lunar duties keep us distracted.

However I thought it would be fun to see what you think of certain Christmas words. OK. We can all look them up on Wiki but what do you think they are just so, off the cuff?

Here goes. Lets hear from you!

1. Yule
2. Christkind
3. Kris Kringle
4. Christingle
5. Father Christmas
6. Sinterklaas
7. Santa Claus
8. St. Nikolaus
9. The Magi
10. Krampus
11. Joulupukki
12. Befana
13. Pai Natal
14. Manger
15. The Three Kings
16. Mikolaj

odd words again

Leafing through my beloved Toys of the Sixties book by Bill Bruegman I realise that there are quite a few American words I don't really know the meaning of.

Let me know if you do readers!

Two for now:

syndication
roit-spray