Friday, January 2: Bandersnatches
EIGHTY-SIX BANDERSNATCHES
by Steve Steinbock
According to our records here at Criminal Brief Central, this is my eighty-sixth column on this esteemed web-log.
Eighty-six is an odd number. According to mathematicians, it is a semi-prime number as well as a happy number. In binary, it looks like this: 1010110. When Mel Brooks and Buck Henry created a television spy spoof, they gave their secret agent the code-name “Agent 86.”
Eighty-six is an important code-word in the restaurant world. It means in general terms, “no more.” When the last Prime Rib has been sold, the chef will announce, “Eighty-six on the Prime Rib special.” When a patron has had one too many and begins acting boisterously, the bartender may decide to “eighty-six” him.
Had Edgar Allan Poe been a Twentieth Century restaurant worker, the raven may have quoth: “Eighty-Six.”
If anyone knows with certainty the true origin of this slang usage of the number Eighty-Six, then it is James Lincoln Warren. But my guess is that this etymology is even beyond his grasp. The theories abound: Might it be that Article 86 of the New York state liquor code defines the condition in which a patron may be kicked out of a bar? Could it refer to the New York speakeasy Chumley’s which was located at 86 Bedford Street? The 86th item on the menu at Delmonico’s, according to one legend, was their house steak, which often ran out. Some say it’s a simple bit of rhyming slang, related to the word “nix” or the slang expression “deep six.”
I don’t know, but it’s an ominous number with which to begin the year.
On the brighter side, I’ve been on a diet, and lost ten percent of my body weight in the last two months of 2008. If you divide my weight (as of January 1, 2009) in half, can you guess what the number is? Yup.
A Slice of Criminal Brie
There’s probably a story there, something to do with a stolen wheel of cheese. But it’s too early in the year to come up with a plotline.
Brie is delicious on crackers at room temperature. But even better baked. The ambitious host can wrap it in puff pastry or phyllo dough before baking it. But I like it slathered with spicy honey mustard, baked in a small casserole dish at 350 for about fifteen minutes or until its cooked through. Serve it with apple slices to give the illusion that it’s healthy.
Stevia in the Raw
I did a double take when I saw this package. Stevia, apparently, is a natural sweetener from the stevia plant. This is a distant relative of the daisy and the aster that is indigenous to Paraguay. I used to have a dog named Daisy, and I was born in Astoria (Oregon), but I’ve never been to South America. My guess is that if I showed up on the fields of Paraguay in the raw I’d be promptly eighty-sixed.
Happy New Year!
Sad News: Donald Westlake dead at 75
Just after posting my column, I learned that Don Westlake, a master of serious crime fiction as well as of comic-caper novels, passed away on New Year’s Eve. Click on my name (above) or photo (to the left) or on Bill Crider’s blog (listed on the right) for more info.
Fun stuff on 86. Thanks for that. And congrats on the weight loss. Oh, and happy new year.
Great column, Steve. Happy New Year to you as well.
I too was saddened to read the news about Donald Westlake. One of my favorites.
Can anyone hear it?
Listen closely… there it is.
The sound of JLW pulling his hair out as he desperately battles to find the answer.
Though he stands his ground as he is slowly defeated, the fight he will not abandon.
Happy New Year! Let’s all remember to take the time to let the people we care about know how we feel.
Actually, Paul, I answered Steve off-line with the likeliest answer and promised to post it here today. So there.
One thing almost all the theories about “86” have in common is that they all refer to New York City. There’s even a theory that the term came from passengers being told to depart from the elevator of the Empire State Building when it reached the 86th floor, i.e., the observation deck. Another thing these theories all have is common is that they are all wrong.
The earliest known reference to “86” was by gossip columnist Walter Winchell on June 1, 1933, in a newspaper column:
“A Hollywood soda-jerker forwards this glossary of soda-fountain lingo out there … ‘Shoot one’ and ‘Draw one’ is one coke and one coffee … ‘Shoot one in the red!’ means a cherry coke … An ‘echo’ is a repeat order … ‘Eighty-six’ means all out of it … ‘Eighty-one’ is a glass of water … ‘Thirteen’ means one of the big bosses is drifting around… A ‘red ball’ is an orangeade… ‘Squeeze one’ is a limeade … ‘Eighty-nine’ means that a movie player of importance is in the store, and ‘Twisted, choke and make it cackle!’ means a chocolate malted milk – with an egg in it.”
So according to Winchell, anyway, the term originated here in Los Angeles. (Hazarding a guess, I’ll bet Winchell’s source probably worked at Schwab’s Drug Store, a legendary Hollywood hangout. Winchell was such a snob and celebrity stalker that I can’t imagine him talking to a soda jerk anywhere else, and I believe Schwab’s originally opened in 1932, since it had a belated “50th Anniversary Party” in 1983, although I’m by no means certain.) Likely this was an extension of the practice of short order restaurants to refer to menu items by number — the employees probably invented their own numbers for things not on the menu.
That just goes to show, 80% of the slang expressions in contemporary American Standard English derive from Naval expressions and drug store soda fountains. The remaining twenty percent gets its source from places in view of the Hollywood Hills.
I’ve been running an activity at http://paradise-mysteries.blogspot.com/2008/12/your-best-crime-fiction-reads-in-2008.html that will go for another couple of days yet, inviting readers to pick their best 10 crime fiction reads in 2008. So far over 350 titles suggested by 35 readers. Making the lists up will be fun. Participate if you like.
Steven, loved this. And thanks to JLW for the edification.
Happy New Year! How’s that Moleskine working out???
Hey, JT! The Moleskine is working great. I’ve got my own hack worked out that uses some of hyalineskies hack and some of the PigPogPDA. It seems to be working.
Everyone! JT Ellison is my counterpart at Murderati (http://www.murderati.typepad.com/). You’ll find her columns every Friday. But read mine first! JT also adds class by recommending wines on her blog. All you’ll get from me is an offer for bourbon, or if you catch me on a nice day, a Drambuie or B&B.
Again, Happy New Year everyone.
I should add, apropos of our short-story theme here at Criminal Brief, that JT and a bunch of other Murderati columnists appear in the Lee Child edited anthology Killer Year. It’s available from Mira in the UK and St. Martins in the US.
Steve:
The number eighty-six seems largely to have negative connotations.
Here’s at least one more:
The North American Aviation F-86 Sabre jet fighter was bad news for Communist pilots over Korea (1950-53), shooting down at least two MiGs for every Sabre. Getting “eighty-sixed” there could prove fatal.
Some estimates say 4-to-1, others 10-to-1, or even higher — it depends on whom you ask, I suppose:
“The actual kill-to-loss ratio vis-a-vis the F-86 and the MiG-15 is still a matter of controversy. In an official Air Force publication issued shortly after the end of the Korean War listed 808 MiGs shot down for the loss of 58 Sabres, for a 14:1 ratio. Other official lists issued by the Air Force come up with somewhat different numbers. The USAF Historical Study #81, USAF Credits for the Destruction of Enemy Aircraft, Korean War, and the USAF Statistical Digest of FY 1953, all list a total of 792 MiGs as having been claimed by F-86s. A total of 78 Sabres were lost in air-to-air combat, with 19 additional Sabres being lost to ground fire, and 13 to unknown causes. So the overall superiority of the Sabre over the MiG was about ten to one.
“Soviet archives that have only recently come to light officially list 345 Soviet-piloted MiG-15s having been lost to UN aircraft of all types during the Korean conflict. There are no comparable figures available for Chinese or North Korean losses. By the early spring of 1953, most of the Soviet units had been withdrawn from combat, and most of the MiGs were now being flown by Chinese or North Korean pilots. During April-July of 1953, Sabres claimed 191 MiGs destroyed, most of them being flown by Chinese or North Korean pilots. Soviet pilots from the era claimed a 2:1 kill ratio in their favor, but this claim must be treated with a considerable amount of skepticism.”
http://home.att.net/~jbaugher1/p86_9.html
Best regards,
Mike Tooney