Word: kites
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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California. Pasadena cops writing an examination for sergeant's ratings found themselves unable to define such low-down underworld terms as gopher (safeblower), third rail (incorruptible official), derrick (shoplifter) and kite (a letter sneaked past the warden). Crooks don't talk that way in Pasadena, they complained. The chief of police agreed, ordered all "detective fiction crime terms" stricken from the exam. Said one cop who got a higher score than his mates: "I'd read a short story in the Saturday Evening Post the night before, so I knew most of the answers...
From Yucatan came news that a large aluminum disc had been seen whizzing by at an altitude of a thousand feet. The most magnificent dispatch came from the northern state of Zacatecas: a farmer had found a large kite-shaped object in the mountains, with two passengers, each just under two feet tall. The Department of National Defense solemnly denied the existence of the midget visitors...