Word: poppings
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Savan doesn’t do much more with her 270 pages than Safire does with his two weekly columns, but really, it doesn’t matter. This is pop non-fiction: not life-changing or even particularly edifying...
...Slam Dunks and No-Brainers: Pop Language in Your Life, the Media, and, Like . . . Whatever” takes a look at the words and phrases we use or used everyday—“duh” and “I don’t think so” are favorites—and traces their origins from the 1930s to the title of an obscure and deliciously kitschy 1980s sitcom...
Savan is both a lover and a loather of pop language, which she defines as “verbal expression that is widely popular and part of popular culture.” She continues, “Beyond that, it’s language that pops out of its surround; conveys more attitude than literal meaning; pulses with a sense of an invisible chorus speaking it, too; and, when properly inflected, pulls attention, and probably consensus, its way.” Her voice in the book is like that of the dieter sitting in front of an ice cream sundae...
...rest of the credit goes to the incredible research behind the book, which preempts potential criticisms concerning timeliness and relevance of the work. Savan writes, “it’s not a word’s freshness date that makes it pop but its degree of persuasive power,” and “a good 93.8 percent of the time we don’t talk pop—but looking at why we do when we do and how it affects communication is my focus.” A third objection—that people...
Highway 50 runs straight as a pool cue from Pueblo, Colo., through 23 miles of rangeland and pion flats before offering an exit to the scruffy little city of Florence (pop. 3,795). Like Flint, Mich., or Orlando, Fla., Florence is a company town. The industry here is prisoners, and the company is the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Twenty years ago, the people of surrounding Fremont County ponied up $160,000 to buy some open land outside Florence, hoping to entice the bureau to build a prison complex as a way to boost the town's economy. Corrections...