Fun_People Archive
24 Apr
fractured fashion English (fwd)

Date: Mon, 24 Apr 95 23:54:41 PDT
From: Peter Langston <psl>
To: Fun_People
Subject: fractured fashion English (fwd)

[Have you ever thought "Who can understand these kids?  They have no idea what
the words they use really mean, they just use them to mean whatever they feel
like..."  No?  Okay substitute "Japanese T-shirts" for "kids."  Still no? 
Okay, so you're young and either Japanese or sheltered.  But for the rest of
us, it may be reassuring to learn that every generation of our own culture has
its own impenetrable language...  -psl]

Begin forwarded message:
Forwarded-by: lanih@info.berkeley.edu (Lani Herrmann)
Forwarded-by: witteman@iii.com
From: Herb Caen's _SF_Chronicle_ column, Friday, April 21, 1995:

     DANDY: My Stanford friend who has access to the archives
   ran across this delicious paragraph in the June 6, 1868, issue
   of the San Mateo County Gazette, quoting The Chronicle under
   the headline "Latest Styles":
     "The latest styles of walking suits appearing on our streets
   may be pronounced very 'nobby' -- more so when the wearer has
   a big thing in kneepans.  A nice young man just in from New
   Yawk was noticed on Montgomery street the other day.  His
   coat-tail of a well-shaped gorilla begins, and his tight pants
   gave to his small legs (which terminated in prodigious yams)
   the appearance of a couple of broomsticks springing out of
   molasses kegs.  The young gal who sells boquets (sic) on the
   corner of Clay street viewed him with an admiring eye,
   remarking that he looked 'sweetly potty.'"

© 1995 Peter Langston