Master Index of Archived Threads


Phrases That No Longer Make (Literal) Sense

Elster88 Jun 09 2006 02:04 PM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Jun 09 2006 02:08 PM

turning on/off the television - turning up/down the volume turning on/off the light still works for some lamps

Yancy Street Gang Jun 09 2006 02:06 PM

Dial a mattress.

Elster88 Jun 09 2006 02:15 PM

or just dial the number

MFS62 Jun 09 2006 02:25 PM

Yancy Street Gang wrote: Dial a mattress. And, along with that "certified mattress professionals". That phrase could have varied meanings. Later

RealityChuck Jun 09 2006 02:54 PM

"You must have been vaccinated with a phonograph needle" (a phrase from my youth and the Marx Brothers) for two reasons.

TheOldMole Jun 09 2006 03:55 PM

A phrase I use every now and then to see if anyone will know what I'm talking about, and nobody ever does...it's disappeared from the language completely: anyone know what an "Annie Oakley" is?

Yancy Street Gang Jun 09 2006 04:01 PM

A gun?

Yancy Street Gang Jun 09 2006 04:05 PM

Here are some things I remember that you don't see anymore: Flash cubes. Those little chalky pieces of paper for typing over your mistakes. The "horizontal hold" dial on the back of the television. Remember when you'd be watching TV and the picture would start to "roll." You'd put up with it for a while, but then it would get annoying enough that you'd get up and start fiddling with that dial until the picture stabilized, or, at least, until the rolling got slow enough to tolerate. And then you'd sit down, and eventually it would start rolling again. I don't remember when that stopped. It's one of those things that you don't notice disappearing, but I haven't adjusted the horizontal hold on a television in decades.

Centerfield Jun 09 2006 05:44 PM

I used to make "Hooked on Phonics" jokes. I stopped when people stopped getting them. Or maybe they just weren't that funny.

ScarletKnight41 Jun 09 2006 05:58 PM

Card catalogs

SteveJRogers Jun 09 2006 06:05 PM

ScarletKnight41 wrote: Card catalogs Yup. They are currently being used as scrap paper at my local library. Though, what happens if the computers are down? Go home (or use a wireless WIFI connection on your laptop) and log into the library's homepage? Pretty soon I think the busy signal might actually pass from this world, though there are still some that despite having digital answering machines haven't hooked up the "caller goes directly to your machine when you are on the phone" part

MFS62 Jun 09 2006 06:12 PM

TheOldMole wrote: A phrase I use every now and then to see if anyone will know what I'm talking about, and nobody ever does...it's disappeared from the language completely: anyone know what an "Annie Oakley" is? A free pass into an event. Later

ScarletKnight41 Jun 09 2006 09:48 PM

An E Ticket

TheOldMole Jun 09 2006 10:51 PM

Yeah, but you're as old as me. The phrase goes back, of course, to Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. A complimentary ticket to an event was distinguished from a full price ticket by having a hole punched in it -- the kind of hole that Annie Oakley used to shoot in playing cards.

ScarletKnight41 Jun 09 2006 10:53 PM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Jun 10 2006 08:21 AM

TheOldMole wrote: Yeah, but you're as old as me. For a moment I thought you were talking to me!

TheOldMole Jun 10 2006 02:14 AM

no no no no no

ScarletKnight41 Jun 10 2006 08:21 AM

LOL - yes, I figured that out <g>