Word: nellyism
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MODERN American speech, while not always clear or correct or turned with much style, is supposed to be uncommonly frank. Witness the current explosion of four-letter words and the explicit discussion of sexual topics. In fact, gobbledygook and nice-Nellyism still extend as far as the ear can hear. Housewives on television may chat about their sex lives in terms that a decade ago would have made gynecologists blush; more often than not, these emancipated women still speak about their children's "going to the potty." Government spokesmen talk about "redeployment" of American troops; they mean withdrawal. When...
...Citing the poor TV ratings of both political conventions, the Providence Bulletin thought that apathy was a problem confronting the Democrats as well. "The election will be no shoo-in for the Republicans," editorialized New York's Daily News, advising against a "refined, polite, high-level campaign . . . Nice-Nellyism seldom wins elections in this country." Slapping Adlai Stevenson for his "prissy little jab at President Eisenhower's favorite game, golf," the News totted up 3,500,000 U.S. golfers and concluded: "In sneering at golf, a politician takes much the same risk as in sneering at Baseball, Baby...
Partridge clears Charles Dickens of all responsibility for the expression "go to the dickens," a Victorian nice-nellyism for "go to the devil." But Dickens' perpetually optimistic Mr. Micawber produced micawberish and the pompous Mr. Bumble lent his name to incompetence forever after. Similarly, a hangman named Derrick is immortalized in hoisting devices, French Physician Joseph Guillotin in a machine which struck him as more humane than the ax, and be-trousered Suffragette Amelia Bloomer in billowing pantalets. It is a process that has never stopped, concludes Partridge happily-from Solon, who became a synonym for lawyer...
...advance royalties by Santly-Joy, Tin Pan Alley song publishers. Broadcasters, suspicious of what sort of "load" the song was delivering, were responsible for a change in the lyrics from "There's another big load" to "There's another dirt load." Within two months of this Nice-Nellyism, the song's sale rose to 50,000 copies. Ethel Merman's Victor recording sold 80,000 discs and kept on going. The U.S. Army morale division ordered 25,000 copies. By last week, members of the U.S. Army themselves had flooded Bandleader Lopez' mail with more...
...book of reminiscences, Past Imperfect (Doubleday, Doran; $3), broadcasting Actress Ilka Chase cut loose from the Nice Nellyism required by radio, let her pen run on without inhibitions. Sample (of her youthful meeting with Novelist George Moore): "Moore was a spindly-legged, pot-bellied, bejowled little man, and he unexpectedly pinched my behind. I felt rather honored that my behind should have drawn the attention of the great master of English prose...
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