[QUOTE=Zsofia]
They gave my uncle Thalidomide last year, actually. Of course, he was a man and dying of brain cancer.
[/QUOTE]
What I was going to say. Although I’ve never seen a medication with more warnings. On the box, in the instructructions, and most impressively, a little picture printed on every single pill. But it can be a big help to a lot of people.
Oh, and maggots after a stint out of the limelight, are making a comeback as the best way to debreed a gangerous (sp?) wound. And leeches, for relieving the pressure of particularly bad bruises. Who knew?
[QUOTE=silenus]
My old hometown had a building that was erected back in the 20s that had a swastika adorning the facade at the top. Since the building was acquired by new owners, the symbol has been covered by a new mosaic. But those of us of an age still point it out to newcomers, just as a history lesson.
[/QUOTE]
That’s similar to what happened in Portland, Oregon a few years ago. Sometime around 1920, a multi-story building was constructed that had a large swastika painted on one of its sides as a good luck symbol. About ten years later, a taller building was contructed right next to it that completely concealed the swastika from view. 60 years go by and, during that time, Hitler and the Nazis take power in Germany, create a totalitarian state, start WWII, and murder millions of people while using the swastika as their emblem. Thus, when the adjacent taller building is torn down during the 90’s and the swastika comes back into view, people react to it like the Broadway audience seeing the opening number for “Springtime for Hitler” in The Producers.
(Incidentally, if there are any Portland Dopers out there, how was this situation resolved?)
Same goes for the name “Adolf.” How many people do you see with that name? I don’t know about the name’s popularity in Germany, but I’d tend to think it also decreased.
[/QUOTE]
Interestingly, I’ve seen Harpo Marx’s real name as both Adolph and Arthur, with the latter winning out especially in later years, so I suspect there was a conscious change made there.
[QUOTE=hajario]
No. Abort is still used. In engineering we talk about aborting tests all the time. How common a word was abortion in the past? Not very, I think.
[/QUOTE]
An example of engineering use is in spaceflight, when launches or other procedures may be “aborted”.
Then in the computer world you have fatal aborts. Who says the word isn’t being used?
[ul][li]Sambo’s restaurants.[/li][li]Use of the word gay to mean “delightful.”[/li][li]Timberland and Carhartt clothing in some circles, after it became popular among the hip-hop crowd.[/ul][/li]
You don’t hear many people using swank as a compliment anymore. Is that because of any association with the porno magazine of the same name?
The USGS renamed hundreds of places with offensive names incorporating racial and ethnic slurs in 1960s; at one time, places named “N****r Creek” or “Jap Creek” weren’t that unusual. Now places incorporating the word squaw are gradually being renamed.
[QUOTE=yBeayf]
Well, pretty much anything related to the Nazis applies. The swastika was once not uncommon as a decoration, as well as being a religious symbol for millions of people (which it still is). The “Nazi salute” goes back to Roman times, and used to be used in the US. Both are now indelibly associated with Nazism, at least in Western culture.
[/QUOTE]
Couple things I want to say here:
First, when was it ever used in the U.S.? Do you mean our armed forces used to use it?
Second, in the Marx Brothers’ movie Room Service, which is mainly about them being holed up in a hotel room with a playwright who is creating a play called “Hail And Farewell”, you keep seeing one character say “Hail!” to another, and the other respond with “And Farewell!”, and during the exchange they raise their arms in greeting. Only trouble is, it looks disturbingly like the Nazi salute, and it was all rather disconcerting considering the Brothers’ heritage, and Harpo’s own disturbing experiences in Nazi Germany, which he passed through on his way to appear as “XAPNO MAPCS” in Russia.
[QUOTE=Spectre of Pithecanthropus]
… and Harpo’s own disturbing experiences in Nazi Germany, which he passed through on his way to appear as “XAPNO MAPCS” in Russia.
[/QUOTE]
I think a light bulb just turned on in my head about a fellow doper’s name.
[QUOTE=Spectre of Pithecanthropus]
Interestingly, I’ve seen Harpo Marx’s real name as both Adolph and Arthur, with the latter winning out especially in later years, so I suspect there was a conscious change made there.
[/QUOTE]
He seems to have been calling himself Arthur by 1911, so in his case it was obviously nothing to do with Hitler, or even anti-German sentiment during WWI.
Ironic as it may seem now, I suppose he dumped the name Adolph for the usual show-biz reason – it sounded “too Jewish”.
[QUOTE=Bryan Ekers]
“Nimrod” might have remained a moderately cool tough-guy name, until Bugs Bunny used it to describe Elmer Fudd.
[/QUOTE]
Sounds about right. I own a vintage 1960 World Book which says that the original Nimrod was known for being a great hunter, and hence anyone with unusual hunting skills might be referred to as a Nimrod. OTOH, I believe it also mentioned him showing up at the Tower of Babel construction site and slowing the progress by getting in the way and being a general nuisance, which must be where the pejorative usage comes from.
[QUOTE=Spectre of Pithecanthropus]
Couple things I want to say here:
First, when was it ever used in the U.S.? Do you mean our armed forces used to use it?
I don’t know about the armed forces, but children in school used to use it when pledging allegiance to the flag. I vividly remember the day in my kindergarden class in 1943 in Worcester, Mass. when the teacher, Miss Bryant, said at the beginning of the class when we all stood to pledge allegiance to the flag “Today we are going to start holding our hands a new way. In stead of pointing them at the ceiling, we are going to place them over our hearts as a sign of our feeling for America.” At the time I had no idea that we were replacing a Nazi-like salute for a more neutral one.
[QUOTE=Spectre of Pithecanthropus]
Sounds about right. I own a vintage 1960 World Book which says that the original Nimrod was known for being a great hunter, and hence anyone with unusual hunting skills might be referred to as a Nimrod.
[/QUOTE]
Right, and Bugs was sarcastically referring to Elmer’s hunting skills. Speaking of which, how many babies are names Elmer these days.
[QUOTE=Spectre of Pithecanthropus]
He must have read the same memoir I did. The chapter covering that episode is titled, “Xapno Mapcase, Secret Agent”.
[/QUOTE]
I’d always wondered about that one. It makes perfect sense now … Suits him/her too.
[QUOTE=Spectre of Pithecanthropus]
Sounds about right. I own a vintage 1960 World Book which says that the original Nimrod was known for being a great hunter, and hence anyone with unusual hunting skills might be referred to as a Nimrod. OTOH, I believe it also mentioned him showing up at the Tower of Babel construction site and slowing the progress by getting in the way and being a general nuisance, which must be where the pejorative usage comes from.
[/QUOTE]
It was my understanding that Nimrod was the one who ordered the building of the Tower of Babel so he could talk directly to God who then put the kibosh on his brazenly audacious architectural plans by making all the workers start speaking different languages. Thus, in addition to referring to a great hunter, “Nimrod” also became a term used to insult someone who was excessively vain or egotistical. From there, it was a short distance for “Nimrod” to become a term for “pompous fool” and then just a regular “fool.” Additionally, “Nimrod” is a Yiddish euphemism for “penis” as is “putz” (which is also a term for “fool”) so both words came to be used interchangeably for both definitions. Although the negative use of “Nimrod” is often attributed to Bugs Bunny, the word was already in use as an insult beforehand.
The Gladstone bag, specifically the small Gladstone bag once used as a sort of mens’ handbag, never really recovered from witness reports that Jack the Ripper carried one.
