Brrr-rr A COLD TURKEY
Bad Day At Black Rock, I’ve used that phrase for years and didn’t actually know where it came from until the other day. I didn’t realize it was the title of a 1955 movie starring Spencer Tracey. Although not so much used now, the phrase which means the worst day ever, was quite popular. I guess it’s now relegated to the likes of me, women of a certain age. Of course if you live in Manhattan and use the phrase, people might think you are complaining about working at CBS – oh no that’s just “The Rock”, oh well…. Ah Hah! A correction from my friend, Gail – CBS is known as BLACK ROCK after all.
When I was in Florida last month visiting my daughter and the grandkids, I really got a taste of living in Gulf Stream; It is a very small section of Delray Beach in the historic section and I think there are about 800 families. The school, Gulf Stream Day School IS the heart beat of the town. It seems as if all the kids go there, dressed in their neat preppy uniforms in khaki, white and navy. The line of cars dropping off and picking up was pretty impressive. Then there’s The Ocean Club, where we went for a Friday night barbecue and it was deja vu all over again. I wrote about that in a previous post; see Sun and Sand, Sangria and Surfing plus Salmon, It’s Saturday-DAY 6. However the point of bringing that up is that by Friday I had observed just how small this little town was and remarked to my daughter that, “This place has all the makings of a Peyton Place“. I said this in front of her and about 4 of her friends. They just looked at me! Uh, what’s a Peyton Place? You’ve got to be kidding me! Forget the TV show, what about the movie? Forget about it, they were clueless and I’m getting really old!
COLD TURKEY: Did you think the phrase Cold Turkey could ever have had a meaning other than the rigors of drug withdrawal? Yes of course it did or it wouldn’t be in this post, lol. Turkeys loom large in American psyche and are the starring entrée at every Thanksgiving Day meal. The phrase talking cold turkey means talking no nonsense and getting done to business. In the early 20th century, the phrase evolved into talking turkey and also going cold turkey – just getting it done.
As I get older, the list of phrases and words lost to Generation X and Y just gets longer and longer. But their day will come soon enough. I’ve already noticed that what I thought was GREAT, they think is AWESOME and the Millennials think it’s SICK!
Bill Ding and his band of clowns are the security patrol for this blog site. He is a favorite toy from the 50*s. By the way sometimes a blog is just an ego-maniacal stream of conscience.
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