Word: argot
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...services, Walt Disney Productions has created a mascot for the state's celebrations, Bisontennial Ben: a bison carrying a quill pen, just right for signing important documents. "We are making the Constitution user-friendly," says Peter Paul, executive vice president of the California Bicentennial Foundation, speaking in the argot of Silicon Valley. "We have taken California innovation and creativity and directed them to selling an important message...
...historic moment: "We started Talking Heads because we thought we'd never be happy in life until we gave rock a shot, a serious try." They moved the action south from Providence to New York City, a friend came up with a name for the band -- drawn from TV argot for head shots of people holding forth -- and things began to happen very fast for Talking Heads...
...word for it in Japanese is ayamachi, diplomatic argot for a grave mistake, even a sin. Last week none other than Yasuhiro Nakasone, Prime Minister of Japan, committed a world-class ayamachi when he told a meeting of his Liberal Democratic Party, "So high is the level of education in our country that Japan's is an intelligent society. Our average score is much higher than those of countries like the U.S. There are many blacks, Puerto Ricans and Mexicans in America. In consequence the average score over there is exceedingly...
...latest craze for teenagers, mostly boys, bike breaking first rode out of the California fadlands. Today urban parks and streets all across the nation spin with the kids' aggressive energy and hair-raising choreography. They have their own argot: "rad" means good; a "squid" or "nipple head" is an awkward rider; "to Wilson" is to fall. In San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, somebody brings the music -- Phil Collins, Run-D.M.C. -- and somebody else a ramp for the daredevils to soar above, and the showboating begins. Says Dave Vanderspek, 22, the leader of the Curb Dogs Club: "Instead...
...circus colleagues. Everywhere one looks on the lot (that is circus argot, the lot; townsfolk who come to gawk before the show are called, uncharitably, lot lice) there are people doing a dozen jobs, saying nothing else beats the life. Dennis Harvey, ringmaster, welder, electrician: "I'm more settled here than anywhere, strange as it sounds. It's like joining a family." Moira Loter, bareback rider, aerialist, jackie-of-all-trades: "I've lived in a house. You always want to go back on the road." Carlos Bautista, whose family, when not being catapulted off a teeterboard, performs, according...