Product Description

Much of the slang popularly associated with the hippie generation of the sixties actually dates back before WW2, hijacked in the main from jazz and blues street expressions, mostly relating to drugs, sex and drinking. Why talk when you can beat your chops, why eat when you can line your flue and why snore when you can call some hogs? You're not drunk - you're just plumb full of stagger-juice and your skin isn't pasty, it's just cafe sunburn. Need a black coffee? That's a shot of java, nix on the moo juice. Containing thousands of examples of hipster slang drawn from pulp novels, classic noir and exploitation films, blues, country and rock'n'roll lyrics and other related sources from the 1920s to the 1960's, Straight From The Fridge Dad lays down the righteous jive, perfect for all you hipsters, B-girls, weedheads, moochers, shroud-tailors, bandrats, top studs, gassers, snowbirds, trigger-men, grifters and long gone daddies.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1518710 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

From Library Journal
Decharne's fun and appealing reference source offers words, phrases, and sentences derived from early 20th-century jazz musicians, crime figures, etc., as represented in such sources as film, pulp novels, blues, and country songs dating from the early 20th century through the mid-1960s. Often noir in tone, these colorful gems include examples illustrating the context. Although originally published in Great Britain, the book draws heavily on American slang. Decharne does not always authenticate the definitions with documentary proof, as with the entry "beat the boards," which he defines as "tapdance." Other times, an entry may include a series of sensational examples: "My solid pigeon, that drape is a killer-diller, an E-flat Dillinger, a bit of a fly thing all on one page," says a young woman complimenting a pretty dress. The book lacks editorial principles like those of the very impressive Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang (Vol. 1: LJ 8/94; Vol. 2: LJ 11/15/97), which provides a pronunciation key, indicates who or what group currently uses the entry, arranges the entries alphabetically according to the primary word, and offers variant forms and cross references. Nonetheless, Decharne's book includes many entries that do not appear in Random House. Highly recommended for reference collections serving writers, historians, hipsters, and anyone who enjoys language. Michelle Foyt, Russell Lib., Middletown, CT
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author
Max Decharne was born in England, and can still speak English when his business demands it. During the past fourteen years he has flung various books and records at the public, and travelled to a variety of countries, firstly as a member of Gallon Drunk, and since 1995 with his band The Flaming Stars, in an effort to spread peace, goodwill and partial deafness among the youth of the world. He still divides his drinking time between London and Berlin.