Per Merriam-Webster: the first written use of “nerd” outside of Dr. Seuss was in Newsweek, October, 1951.
You misspelled “tonne.”
The Goldbergs takes place in the 80’s, but I hear a lot of expressions that were invented after 2000.
Like “Hello?” when somebody isn’t getting your point. In the 80’s, it was more like “Earth to <name>.”
Hello, McFly?! Back to the Future was classic 80s. 
It’s done in Ontario too. Everyone just refers to “the 401” or “the QEW”
Well…OK, but if you saw “Niss” written down, you’d expect it to rhyme with “niss”, not “fleece”. And if you saw “an” written down, chances are you’d know how to pronounce it, as it’s one of the most common words in English.
So if you see “Nissan”, there’s little to prompt saying “Neessahn”. I’ve no idea how the Japanese pronunciation actually sounds, but I’m happy enough that - because it’s been transliterated as “Nissan” - the standard British pronunciation is - at worst - a justifiable mistake.
The most famous American undertaker wears a hat. Here’s my cite:
https://www.amazon.com/Undertaker-Signed-Wrestling-Beckett-Witnessed/dp/B07R86GJD7
Metric or short? :dubious:
The movie Call Northside 777 takes place in Chicago. Jimmy Stewart’s character refers to the state capital as “up in Springfield.” Of course, Springfield is south(west) of Chicago, and is always referred as “down in Springfield.” Well, or depending on the context, perhaps “downstate.”
I live a good couple of hundred miles north of London, and would therefore travel “down to London”. Historically, however, one wouldn’t have. One always travelled “up” to the capital, regardless of compass points. Although apparently there was one “up train” from London: the one to Oxford.
It was an Oxford chap who told me that though, so I don’t know if I was simply missing an obvious local-pride joke…but he was posh enough to know such things and appeared serious.
University was routinely “up” in the past too. But then London was up from there. Except for Oxford University, possibly, if my mate Nick is to be believed.
So. Anyway…perhaps there was a hint of “capital is up” over there for a while too?
There’s a subcategory that could probably support its own thread, and it’s something that’s been bothering me more and more lately: science fiction in which people in the far future are obsessed with the pop culture contemporaneous to the story’s writing. So, you’ve got multiple Star Trek characters obsessed with 20th-century movies and books. I recently read a book set a century from now in which poop emojis made multiple appearances alongside artifacts of 201x texting culture.
The worst, though, is a book I just read. Otherwise pretty fun, it’s set several centuries from now, and an angry/aggressive/hot-tempered character is nicknamed Jenks. Eventually you find out that that’s short for her full nickname: LEEEROY JENKINS!
Yeah, uh, no. People in the distant future are not going to reference a World of Warcraft meme from 2005.
I get why authors do this: it’s way easier to reference modern pop culture than to invent future pop culture, and lots of authors are no good at creative anthropology. But it really takes me out of the story.
How do you feel about The Orville?
I haven’t seen it. Does it lampshade this?
It’s full of references to 20th century pop culture. The lowest moment (in my humble opinion) was using Dolly (Yeccch! :mad: ) Parton as a feminist icon.
I mean, Parton’s certainly a feminist icon for a lot of women, despite Parton’s own rejection of the term. But I kinda doubt that starship captains will make offhand references to her in 400 years, any more than navy captains are chatting today about Aphra Behn.
You can’t just write this without telling us!
Her music is the kind you’re forced to listen to in Hell. Mercer plays it in his shuttlecraft. :mad:
I hope every trace of its existence will be eradicated by the time humans have evolved another 400 years.
That cite only leads to the general wiki page for that show?
I associate the term “nerd alert” with the 1990s at the earliest. It’s possible it’s an older term, but I’m not sure why it would have taken 30+ years to make it to my neighbourhood.