A BUTCHER’S hook/look (Cockney rhyming slang)
I recommend installing the Substack app (free) on your phone. It’s easier, works well and looks better! Or online here - browse away!
say wha’?
I actually don’t mind discovering when I’ve been completely wrong about something. A few years ago, a friend gave me a copy of The Catcher in the Rye (thanks, Fred!) because he couldn’t believe I’d never read it. Not only was it nothing like I’d imagined, but there was something else. On one of the opening pages, I read: till Christmas. What? Wait, shouldn’t that be ‘til? I’d always assumed ‘til was short for until - just until with the un- dropped and replaced by an apostrophe. But apparently not. It turns out till actually predates until by several centuries. Well, well, live and learn.
Now I see til and ‘til everywhere. I thought of it like being a smoker (which I was) and then becoming someone who isn’t - I really notice it when someone is smoking.
New Yonk, New Yonk
Strange things happen in translation between Italian, Chinese and English. A selection of the insane T-Shirts I find in Italy
Besides NEW YONK, we’ve also got ‘Wackied’, ‘GUNI ‘n’ IACKIES’ and it goes without saying that ‘Yesboy wear TENK (if you didn’t know)
b 0 0 m
OK, to be honest, I've never been big on poetry, but this typewriter poetry from the '60s has a distinctive cross-over graphic appeal. It's another interesting show over at Peter Freeman: N.H. Pritchard: boom - worth the visit
togged to the bricks
The Superfine, tailoring black style show at the MET is excellent - here’s a gem that might be over-looked.
jive talking
Without even getting into the story of the zoot suit, here's a quick look at jive talk. Just as with any cultural sub-sect in fashion, there’s jargon and slang to go along with it. It's interesting to see which of the then new 'hep' phrases in the Jive Talking handbook have survived, still understood and used today... and those that haven’t.
‘what's your story?’ - what do you want, what have you got to say for yourself, how are tricks, or what excuse can you offer? e.g. "I don't know what his story is"
and ‘too much’ (adj)-term of highest praise. e.g. "You are too much!"
and gone: ‘trilly’ (v) - to leave, depart. e.g. "Well, I guess I'll trilly”
it’s a phonetic part of Brooklyn
