It meanders, but it has a point
This is the excellent Modern Diner in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. “The Sterling Streamliner car, made in the late-1930s and early 1940s, was the first diner in the nation to be accepted on the National Register of Historic Places.” I used to get a wicked greasy breakfast there of a Saturday, after I visited my gun shop.
But I wasn’t looking for that. I was looking for Atomic Pizza, which I think was on the other side of Providence, in Cranston maybe. Very Fifties aesthetic. I didn’t find it – probably long gone – but I discovered there are Atomic Pizzas all over the world. Huh.
Anyway. This morning, I had reason to look up some local shipyards and discovered there was a ship built locally in 1898 called Telephone. Imagine being the captain of the Telephone. Imagine going down with the Telephone. It made me reflect on the hilarious human urge to name things after unrelated cutting edge things that can’t possibly stay cutting edge and will some day sound stupid as hell.
At the end of the 19th C, all kinds of things were marketed as electric that had no electric components at all. It just sounded cool.
Ragtime Gal had ragtime, sending improbable things by wire and the telephone. Poor Daisy just had the bicycle, although it was an extra snazzy one.
The Fifties had atomic and TV. The Sixties had everything space.
When I first started coming over here in the Nineties, everything – I mean everything – was euro-this and euro-that. That got tired fast. I guess it’s sustainable now.
More examples?
Posted: February 27th, 2024 under personal.
Comments: 11
Comments
Comment from Durnedyankee
Time: February 27, 2024, 10:35 pm
Sorry, my comprehension device stopped after processing the phrase “my gun shop”.
😂
Comment from MrKnowitall
Time: February 27, 2024, 11:08 pm
“Turbo” got wonderfully overused. I knew that boat had well and truly sailed when I ran across somebody with a pet owl named Turbo.
Comment from Some organic vegetable
Time: February 27, 2024, 11:12 pm
The whole “organic” Shtick… my favorite is farm-raised “Organic mushrooms” …as opposed to inorganic mushrooms? I always thought that most farmed mushrooms are grown in, ah, chicken manure, and damned if I can figure out how to make organic chicken shit.
Another favorite is “Gluten free” My favorite there is a big bag of chichirones that proudly declared in bright red on the label, “GLUTEN FREE!”… and well it was true,that
Comment from Veeshir
Time: February 27, 2024, 11:42 pm
Eco…. is another.
Portsmouth, NH has Gilleys.
Some guy parked his trolley looking vehicle in a parking lot in the 70s and started selling diner food.
They try to get rid of it occasionally but folks get riled.
It’s good post-last-call food.
Comment from Durnedyankee
Time: February 28, 2024, 2:39 am
@Some Veg –
And in case you wonder where the gluten goes after they free the other food from it…there’s a very nice little Chinese place across from The Baptidome in Plano/Carrollton that serves Fried Gluten appetizers.
Comment from Uncle Al
Time: February 28, 2024, 2:47 am
With “grass fed” the current big hype in the meats department, I’m a bit surprised I haven’t yet seen ads for “Tommy Chong’s Grass Fed Beef Jerky Strips.”
Comment from Durnedyankee
Time: February 28, 2024, 9:40 am
“Free” and all it’s various false derivations, implications and promises.
Like “Free flu shots”, courtesy of “Free government funding ” or “Free grocery delivery”.
Comment from Guyton
Time: February 28, 2024, 2:12 pm
Radio flyer wagons. Had nothing to do with radio, but Radio was the thing at the time. They’re still around.
Comment from M
Time: February 28, 2024, 6:29 pm
Guyton I was going to mention Radio flyer wagons. My son had one and thought he was Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes. Lol.
Comment from Jon
Time: February 28, 2024, 6:32 pm
“e-” and “i-” things from the 90s. Not just the phone, which is one of the only remaining ones. I guess “ecommerce” is *sort* of around but “online” took that over for the most part.
Comment from Rich Rostrom
Time: February 28, 2024, 9:43 pm
“Radio” for sure. Remember “An RKO Radio Picture”?
Also “Astro”, which took o0ff in the ’60s.
Speaking of “Euro”, ever see The Freshman (with Matthew Broderick and Marlon Brando as Mob boss Carmine “Jimmie the Toucan” Sabatini)? The customers for Sabatini’s illicit endangered-species banquets are described as “Euro-trash”.
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