# mojo / mojo wire
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mojo-mojo-wire/230783
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
**Created:** [February 24, 2004, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mojo-mojo-wire/230783 "2004-02-24T00:01:09Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Albrecht\_Conz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Albrecht_Conz)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2004, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mojo-mojo-wire/230783/1 "2004-02-24T00:01:09Z")
In this [column](http://www.straightdope.com/straightdope/classics/a2_257/) which I read a while ago (and for some reason or other the page is unavailable right now) there’s a discussion of the term “mojo.” The definition given there fits in well with the term “mojo wire” as used by Hunter S. Thompson etc. (in the late 60s or early 70s), meaning fax machine. HST claims he invented the term (actually he occasionally claims he invented the machine, but nevermind).
So did HST coin the term?
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### Author:  [@Albrecht\_Conz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Albrecht_Conz)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2004, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mojo-mojo-wire/230783/2 "2004-02-24T00:04:53Z")
oops - first it froze and then it was double. Could one of the admins please delete the duplicate thread?
Thanks.
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### Author:  [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2004, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mojo-mojo-wire/230783/3 "2004-02-24T00:21:35Z")
Done.
Thanks for posting the link!
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### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2004, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mojo-mojo-wire/230783/4 "2004-02-24T03:29:37Z")
Can you cite HST saying that? Any help of his exact phrasing? When?
I found it used in a newpaper headline that had nothing to do with Thompson. It was from 1976. And it was referring to something other than fax machines(standard print jounalism).
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### Author:  [@zut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zut)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2004, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mojo-mojo-wire/230783/5 "2004-02-24T13:15:41Z")
Here’s a [clue](http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/media/jan-june00/coverage_2-17.html), from a 2000 PBS special on the 1972 campaign:
> [@](#):
>
> TERENCE SMITH: The food was no better in 1972, but there was a feeling of being off on your own, of being set free. Timothy Crouse traveled that year with gonzo journalist Hunter Thompson for “Rolling Stone” Magazine.
>
> TIMOTHY CROUSE: There weren’t any laptops, you didn’t have a cell phone. There was a machine we had at a Rolling Stone that Hunter Thompson called the “Mojo,” because it wasn’t even called a fax yet.
Granted, that’s someone remembering events of 18 years past, as opposed to a contemporaneous account. Are RS articles from '72 accessible?
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### Author:  [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2004, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mojo-mojo-wire/230783/6 "2004-02-24T13:48:48Z")
I saw my first fax machine in 1961, and it wasn’t new then.
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### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2004, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mojo-mojo-wire/230783/7 "2004-02-25T02:58:56Z")
**John**. In fairness, you weren’t the average American at that point. The average business, or even Rolling Stone, may have just barely acquired a facsimile machine. It wasn’t exactly mainstream.
So, did Hunter Thompson invent the term “fax.” NO.
Did he invent “mojo wire”–probably, unless John takes credit.
One should also be aware that “mojo” in the 1950’s through the 1970’s took on the meaning of drugs, specifically “coke.”
Not that anyone should connect HST with drugs.
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### Author:  [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2004, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mojo-mojo-wire/230783/8 "2004-02-25T04:36:32Z")
First of all, the fax machine dates back quite a few years. [Here’s a little timeline](http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blfax.htm). Not everything was invented in the last 20 years folks.
My searches and memories are all “Rolling Stone”/HST related in regards to “Mojo”/“Mojo wire”. One is shown in the movie version of F&LILV. It is mentioned by the editor in “Almost Famous”, etc. I think it was just a “Rolling Stone” related slang term. (It is interesting to note though that “MoJo” is also slang for “Mother Jones” magazine.)
Search down in [this](http://dir.tpage.com/26/05/) for a movie that was looking to get one. Hmmm.
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### Author:  [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2004, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mojo-mojo-wire/230783/9 "2004-02-25T10:41:14Z")
> [@ftg](#):
>
> First of all, the fax machine dates back quite a few years. [Here’s a little timeline](http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blfax.htm). Not everything was invented in the last 20 years folks.
You know, it’s funny you say that. I tend to think of a fax machine as **old** technology. It’s right up there with electric typewriters and carbon paper (and now pagers) - not terribly technologically advanced, and only used by offices who have to do things the hard way. 🙂
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### Author:  [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2004, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mojo-mojo-wire/230783/10 "2004-02-25T13:25:18Z")
> [@samclem](#):
>
> **John**. In fairness, you weren’t the average American at that point.
What’s more “average American” than a boy scout on a field trip?
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### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2004, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mojo-mojo-wire/230783/11 "2004-02-26T01:11:30Z")
> [@John W. Kennedy](#):
>
> What’s more “average American” than a boy scout on a field trip?
Then I would guess that you weren’t visiiting your average “office.” IBM?