“Older person”

In The Washington Post, Gary Abernathy writes about ageism and how it grates:

How should we respectfully refer to old people? I’ve seen people 60-plus still refer to themselves as “middle aged,” but let’s be a little more realistic and cut that off at least by 59. The word “old,” however, is such a pejorative that it should not be used alone. “Older person” is preferable. I hesitate to use “elderly” at all, which implies not just old age but a feeble condition. I’ve always despised “senior citizen” and references to the “golden years.” How ’bout “best people ever?” That’s good.

And:

I sometimes notice younger people in social settings looking past me or through me, as though I’m almost invisible.

Yep.

*

I just remembered and found something that I wrote in an e-mail to a friend earlier this year. Here it is, with one slip fixed:

Old — when I bought the graphic novels New Kid and Class Act at Barnes & Nobility, the clerk mentioned its their new popularity and that of Maus, and I mentioned that I was the first person in my English department to teach a graphic novel, namely Maus. Years ago, I said, shortly after the invention of printing. She didn’t laugh, didn’t bat an eye. This seems to happen as one becomes older — what you say goes right past people. Grr. And when I’ve acquired such wisdom!

[I changed the ‘bout in the Abernathy passage to ’bout. ’Cos that’s how I roll.]

A dawn hater

From The Dark Corner (dir. Hentry Hathaway, 1946). Clifton Webb as Hardy Cathcart, gallery owner:

“I probably shan’t return much before dawn. How I detest the dawn. The grass always looks like it’s been left out all night.”

The Dark Corner is streaming at the Criterion Channel. “It was better on a first viewing in 2010,” says I. But still worth watching.

Also from this movie
EXchange names on screen

EXchange names on screen

[The Dark Corner (dir. Henry Hathaway, 1946.]

The reality effect again. Nearly all these names appear in the 1940 Manhattan telephone directory. This page must be from the listings in a commercial directory. If you’re a detective and it’s your directory, you’re free to mark up the pages in your search for a white suit stained with blood.

More telephone EXchange names on screen
Act of Violence : The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse : Armored Car Robbery : Baby Face : Black Angel : Black Widow : Blast of Silence : The Blue Dahlia : Blue Gardenia : Boardwalk Empire : Born Yesterday : The Brasher Doubloon : The Brothers Rico : The Case Against Brooklyn : Chinatown : Craig’s Wife : Danger Zone : The Dark Corner : Dark Passage : Deception : Deux hommes dans Manhattan : Dial Red 0 : Dick Tracy’s Deception : Down Three Dark Streets : Dream House : East Side, West Side : Escape in the Fog : Fallen Angel : Framed : Hollywood Story : Kiss of Death : The Little Giant : Loophole : The Man Who Cheated Himself : Modern Marvels : Murder by Contract : Murder, My Sweet : My Week with Marilyn : Naked City (1) : Naked City (2) : Naked City (3) : Naked City (4) : Naked City (5) : Naked City (6) : Naked City (7) : Naked City (8) : Naked City (9) : Nightfall : Nightmare Alley : Nocturne : Old Acquaintance : Out of the Past : Perry Mason : Pitfall : The Public Enemy : Railroaded! : Red Light : She Played with Fire : Side Street : The Slender Thread : Slightly Scarlet : Stage Fright : Sweet Smell of Success (1) : Sweet Smell of Success (2) : Tension : Till the End of Time : This Gun for Hire : The Unfaithful : Vice Squad : Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?

MSNBC, sheesh

“. . . whomever is going to be Speaker.”

The simple check: drop in a pronoun. Her is going to be Speaker? Him is? They are? No. Whomever is? No.

Related reading
All OCA MSNBC, sheesh posts (Pinboard)

A Jerry Craft interview

From this morning’s Morning Edition, an interview with Jerry Craft. He has a new book, School Trip, coming out in April. I wrote about his New Kid and Class Act in this post.

[I’m happy to know that Craft did get to the Texas school system that had disinvited him after some parents charged that his books promulgated critical race theory.]

Rudolph and reindeer, explained

“Quick etymology.”

Thanks, Elaine.

Word of the day: commuter

[Nancy, January 24, 1950. Click for a larger view.]

Nancy’s new train whistles, smokes, goes choo-choo — it does (in Bushmiller Bold) EVERYTHING.

I was surprised to see commuter in use in 1950 — I would have guessed that it was a later invention. I’m even more surprised to see that the word (“Originally U.S.”) dates from the mid-nineteenth century. The first Oxford English Dictionary citation is from 1865 (The Atlantic Monthly ):

Two or three may be styled commuters’ roads, running chiefly for the accommodation of city business-men with suburban residences.

Pre-“traffic and weather on the eights,” there were commuters.

Related reading
All OCA Nancy posts (Pinboard)

[I would have placed commuter in the 1970s, perhaps because that’s when I became a commuter when attending college. There was much consternation about Fordham at Rose Hill becoming a commuter campus.]

Nut sorter, dowel inspector, egg processor

Nut sorter, dowel inspector, egg processor: The Washington Post reports that the Social Security Administration evaluates disability claims by using a Dictionary of Occupational Titles, last updated in 1977, to determine what kinds of work a person with a disability might be able to do. But many kinds of work described in the dictionary would be difficult or impossible for anyone, with or without a disability — because the work itself is obsolete or nearly so. See the first six words of the post.

Here’s one occupational title that I noticed, pen and pencil repairer:

Repairs and replaces parts of fountain pens and mechanical pencils, using electric buffer, handtools, and magnifying lens: Repairs or replaces ink sacs, plungers, barrels, and other parts, using handtools. Places pen points on straightening block and rubs them with mandrel to straighten points. Twists and turns points with pliers under magnifying lens to align points. Washes pens and pencils in cleaning solution. Removes engraving and polishes pens and pencils, using electric buffer. May operate pantograph engraving machine or stamping machine to inscribe names on pens and pencils. May operate bench lathes to cut out parts for pens and pencils. May sell pens and pencils. May requisition replacement parts for pens and pencils.

Ink sacs — yes, for pen fanatics, but not in most people’s definitions of real life in 2022. The dictionary also describes work in telegraphy and television-tube rebuilding. I could go on. But I think another form of work cited in the Post article tops them all: manual scoreboard operator.

Related posts
Harvey Wang’s New York : “Old-world skillz” : “Trailing-edge technology”

[I was hoping for pinsetter, a job my dad had as a Depression kid. But the dictionary is too up-to-date for that. Alas, the links in the last two posts are gone.]

Recently updated

Terry Hall (1959–2022) Now with a link to a New York Times obituary.

EXchange names on the screen

[She Played with Fire (dir. Sidney Gilliat, 1957). Click for a larger view.]

I once characterized telephone-directory-fills-the-screen as a low-grade reality effect: even a fictional telephone directory is in some way a work of non-fiction. Here the reality effect is strong: at least some of the addresses are real, and Litaweave Products was still doing business from 90 Teesdale Street, London, as late as 1965. (Thanks, Google Books.)

And what is a “peelhead”? Something used in making pizza.

More telephone EXchange names on screen
Act of Violence : The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse : Armored Car Robbery : Baby Face : Black Angel : Black Widow : Blast of Silence : The Blue Dahlia : Blue Gardenia : Boardwalk Empire : Born Yesterday : The Brasher Doubloon : The Brothers Rico : The Case Against Brooklyn : Chinatown : Craig’s Wife : Danger Zone : The Dark Corner : Dark Passage : Deception : Deux hommes dans Manhattan : Dial Red 0 : Dick Tracy’s Deception : Down Three Dark Streets : Dream House : East Side, West Side : Escape in the Fog : Fallen Angel : Framed : Hollywood Story : Kiss of Death : The Little Giant : Loophole : The Man Who Cheated Himself : Modern Marvels : Murder by Contract : Murder, My Sweet : My Week with Marilyn : Naked City (1) : Naked City (2) : Naked City (3) : Naked City (4) : Naked City (5) : Naked City (6) : Naked City (7) : Naked City (8) : Naked City (9) : Nightfall : Nightmare Alley : Nocturne : Old Acquaintance : Out of the Past : Perry Mason : Pitfall : The Public Enemy : Railroaded! : Red Light : Side Street : The Slender Thread : Slightly Scarlet : Stage Fright : Sweet Smell of Success (1) : Sweet Smell of Success (2) : Tension : Till the End of Time : This Gun for Hire : The Unfaithful : Vice Squad : Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?