David Buchholz

To echo Paul and add my own...let's get rid of "epic", "viral", "awesome", and all wait staff should be dismissed if they respond "Perfect!" when I order my burger medium-rare.

Steven Levinson

And don't forget, Paul, the current vogue regarding the nominalization of "ask," as in "My ask to you is . . . ."

Paul Simons

Steve - I did get that one - it's a few posts back. Just scroll up - it's with the George Booth "New Yorker" cartoon.

Dave - OMG!! Excellent choices, bro!

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

I just heard the phrase, by an announcer on NPR no less, "It sounds CLICHÉ".  

David Buchholz

My wife hates to be called a "guy", which seems to be the nom-de-jour by many waiters and waitresses.  "Hi guys, what can I get you to drink?"  After enduring that one more time we received our check from a restaurant with a pen and a place to make remarks.  My wife described her annoyance at being referred tp as a "guy".  We paid and left the restaurant and began walking across the parking lot.  Just as we reached the car our waiter appeared at the door and yelled to us, "Goodnight Folks!"  We loved it,

Philip Spiess

I will say to all of you WHHS "folks," keep going on these language critiques, whether or not they reap any real results (which is to say, results in the real world).  (Although I have enjoyed the term "awesome!" in some contexts, such as young visitors to my Hallowe'en display years ago -- "Awesome!' -- or my Middle School students -- "You are an awesome teacher!" -- I fully believe that the term has been, and is, way too much overused.)

But now I want to return, for one last time, to the saga of George Remus (Post #3780), in order to correct some points or to present some new ones (i.e., new inquiries).  Although Remus's secret distillery was at his "Death Valley Farm" on Queen City Avenue, his actual home was on Price Hill, at 825 Hermosa Avenue, between West 8th Street and St. Lawrence Avenue.  The Price Hill Historical Society displays Remus's dining table, and the current 50 West Distilleries (local, I presume, to Cincinnati) produces "Remus Bourbon."  Last -- but certainly not least -- Bruce Fette inquires about a College Hill property in the forest at the end of his street, at 1430 North Bend Avenue, a drive with a "No Trespassing" sign posted, and the tradition of a bootlegger in residence and the kids warned "Never go there."  Then (according to Bruce) there was also a rumor about the death of a young boy and illicit whiskey.  Anyone know anything about these College Hill stories?

Jerry Ochs

Yet more kvetching about language abuse. 

Boil a frog slowly and yada yada yada.  As an ex-pat I have noticed what you may have not: the loss of the second word in many idioms.  Y'all have gone from chill out to chill, from cave in to cave, from pass away to pass.

In an unrelated rant, I am being told that during the abominable partial government shutdown, federal employees are calling OUT sick.  What? 

Paul Simons

Jerry - Federal employees who are forced to work without pay, or else lose their jobs permanently, are at times calling out sick. I can't blame them. As this is written, the Federal government is in the longest intentional shutdown in its history. We do have a mechanism carefully designed by the founders of the country to solve disagreements and reach a compromise, but that pre-supposes that all sides want reach a compromise. The founders created the mechanism in reaction to having been the subjects of a monarchy, where the King Of England ruled by imperial decree. Some might say that technology has replaced the imperial decree with the imperial tweet, but some would disagree. In any case the country has been conflicted from the start - most of the founders referenced above talked a lot about freedom and equality but also owned slaves. Even today, there are still those, evidently many, who are disappointed with the outcome of the Civil War. Progress has been one step up, two steps back in many cases. It's still a work in progress.

Gail Weintraub (Stern)

Jerry and Paul, while working and when I was ill, I would call IN sick. 

Mary Vore (Iwamoto)

Some proper nouns, now used as verbs, that seem to have gained general acceptance - or at least, I use them (I may not have spent enough time at WHHS):

Google; Xerox; Vortex (a simple biology lab instrument used to dissolve or mix materials in liquids thoroughly by generating a vortex). 

Jerry Ochs

Product placement fail(ure): On an episode of Hawaii Five-O, somebody said they would Bing a suspect's name. The online derision was widespread and prolonged.

In the UK, people hoover the carpet.  

Shall we move on to our inability to replace rolling up the car window and dialing the telephone?

Philip Spiess

Jerry, Paul, and Gail:  You can't call IN(to) the office if the office is closed because it's a government office; there will be nobody there (not even the janitor) to answer the phones.  So your only alternative is to call OUT -- to your boss at his home, to the newspapers to complain, or just to CALL OUT FOR HELP!

Jerry:  It's interesting that the Brits picked up on the brand-name of the Hoover Vacuum Cleaner Company (a native business of Ohio), whereas the Americans didn't.  Maybe that is because many of them equated the product with Herbert Hoover, i.e., as President they thought he really sucked.  [N.B.:  I used to drive my Middle School students really crazy by asking them "What English word has a 'W' in it that doesn't have a 'W' in it?"  The answer, of course, is "vacuum."]  

Mary:  Although Google and Xerox are now regularly used as verbs, they follow in the grand tradition of Victrola, Kleenex, and Scotch Tape becoming household objects and words that transcended their original brand name in general usage.  The Cincinnati firm of Formica was also once one such, but Formica, as a product and a company, has now gone the way of, say, Rookwood Pottery. 

David Buchholz

Some years ago the Santa Rosa City Council held a special meeting to expunge the word "prioritize" from their minutes, as someone on national TV had embarrassed them by calling attention to the "ize" that had begun to appear.  Now it's unavoidable.
 

Thomas Lounds Jr.

Phillip, I would love to help you about George Remus, but my thinking about historical crime in Cincinnati extends only to my observances as a child (well before WHHS) living with my grandparents on the third floor of a tenement on Court Street (now a curve in I-75) in the ghetto of Cincinnati.  Actually, I had a couple of uncles, perhaps black versions of Remus.  One, known everywhere as "Cholly" who was a kingpin of gambling and prostitution on/of 6th Street.  The other, nicknamed " Cat-tail" actually blocked traffic on one of the bridges from Newport to Cincinnati as he fought the police over bringing liquor into Cincinnati.  Both tough dudes but to keep the record straight, both uncles were very good to me. Next to where we lived ,but on the first floor, was a bar, which we all called the " Bucket of Blood" where the late night entertainment from our third floor slit Windows --because of the slanted roofs--was always the arrival of the black Mariahs  loaded with police wielding their heavy nightsticks as they beat--excuse me-"arrested" those considered offenders.  Have I seen it?  You bet! 

Anne, I am sure your discovery was offsetting.  Recently, my daughter-in-law , whose mother was murdered, just discovered triplet brothers that were left behind at one of her fathers military stations.

Jerry Ochs.  More kvetching about language abuse.  Just read an Associated Press article about introducing some new model cars at the Detroit Auto Show.  Several "unveils" were made. 

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

I shared with Judy that my description on my Facebook profile is: “Volunteer, outgoing introvert. Love family & friends.  Passionate about dogs. Was a dog in a former life.”

Here’s one of the accompanying pictures.  

Philip Spiess

Mr. Lounds:  Important material for the historical record; these are the anecdotes that fill in the gaps.  But, although I can guess your approximate age, I'm not certain, nor do I want to be precipitate or inquisitive.  Can you give me a general idea of what years you're talking about?  (Love the bridge story! -- of course, cheap beer was still being brought into Cincinnati from Kentucky in my youth, I suppose perhaps illicitly -- by my grandfather, among others -- why else would he bother to go there?)  As to the nightstick beatings, well, we're all (i.e., I'm speaking of "whites") still learning about that "buried" history, and we're all of us still seeing worse on the nightly news today -- history not only repeats itself, but sometimes never changes.

Ann:  You're such a dog!

Bruce Fette

Ann,

I love that picture. What charming friends.

Stephen Collett

Thanks to Tom Lounds for weighing in with the actuality of those times. Wow, there is a movie in that.

Alert friends, the shingles. I have just had a very tough five weeks and am still knocked out. I got it in the head -it always just does half the piece of the body. torso or legs or whatever. The thing is to start taking the anti-viral tabs wihin three days. But of course, one doesn´t know what one has before a week has gone. Grusome, in the eye and mouth and ear on the one side.

Stephen

Chuck Cole

Stephen, I'm so sorry to hear about your case of shingles.  My grandmother suffered from it. Fortunately for those of us who have not had, there is a new vaccine to prevent shingles that is supposed to be quite effective.  I don't know if it has an effect on those who have had the disease. 

As you probably know, the virus that causes shingles is the same one that causes chicken pox.  After chicken pox ends, the virus hides in neurons in a latent state, and different stimuli and stresss can cause it's reactivation, leading it to emerge from its hiding place and cause trouble.

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

Phil:   SHE = female   PARD = ( the name of the male pedigreed Belgium Malinois, Pard de Alphaville Bohemia)

           SHE + PARD = BITCH 

Steve: So sorry that you have to experience the pain of shingles. The eye/head region is quite difficult.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the Zostervax vaccine I had about 7 years ago and the two-injection Shingrix vaccine I had last year will provide me some immunity. As Chuck mentioned, I remember my grandmother suffering from shingles, but, subsequently in recent years, have had friends describe their attacks.

For some reason, shingles is not limited to older people any more and has become prevalent among millennials. One of the young people I worked with had shingles. She's told me that several of her friends suffered too.  https://www.acsh.org/news/2017/12/20/decline-chickenpox-problem-millennials-12312

Hope you feel better my friend. 

Dale Gieringer

  Ann -

    The shingles vaccine you (and I) got years ago is only about 50% effective.   The new vaccine you and Chuck mentioned, Shingrix, is over 80% effective.   I have a prescription for it in my wallet.  Unfortunately, the pharamacy has been unable to fill it because there's a nationwide shortage.  - Dale

Thomas Lounds Jr.

Philip. Do not worry about being inquisitive.  Thank goodness you are, and, according to all of us, you wear it well. I am 80 years old and the times I was referring to were the late 40's when I had to be 8-10 years old, and even, a little younger to be able to recall the jam-packed Union Terminal during the war.  Yes, I saw a lot of the violence l described but one of my better recollections of those times was visiting/ shopping ( with Grannie) at the 6th Street Market.  The smells of the open air vegetable booths, the "barkers" , the giant fish and meat markets and the live chickens we brought home I can smell and hear even today.  Philip, do you have anything on the history of the Market? When and why did it go?  Urban renewal?  Sanitation problems? 

.  Stephen.  Perhaps it would make a good movie. The more important thing at this time is for you to get well soon.  It sounds as if you have suffered enough.  

Jerry Ochs

Another outrageous use of a noun as a verb:

100 miles of border wall in exchange for amnestying millions of illegals.

Philip Spiess

Mr. Lounds:  Years ago (call it the 1970s, because it was), I started a "building-type" photographic archive of Cincinnati buildings throughout its history, what I called "a genealogy of Cincinnati buildings."  I never finished it because I got married and suddenly my funds were going other places, as you may guess.  One of the building-types I concentrated on was markets, so I'm sure I have material on the 6th Street Market; of the five or six city markets that existed over time (run by the city, I believe), at least three were still around in my childhood in the 1950s, but of these only Findlay Market has survived, where I shopped with my Grandmother and Great-Grandmother (unless there are still remnants of the Court Street Market, on Court Street in front of the Hamilton County Courthouse and adjacent to Ferd Avril's Butcher Shop, still operating).

Unfortunately, my Cincinnati archives and library collection are "deep-sixed" at the back of our house's "library stacks" (as opposed to the Library itself), and it would take an archaeological expedition to unearth them.  But hope springs eternal!  I'm about to actually dive in there, as the wife of the director of the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra is hounding me to get at my Music Hall files, as she is doing tour histories and a restoration of Cincinnati Music Hall.  So I can probably dig out the Cincinnati markets files at the same time -- and we'll see where things go from there.

Paul Simons