I Love It When You Talk Retro: Hoochie Coochie, Double Whammy, Drop a Dime, and the Forgotten Origins of American Speech

I couldn't stop reading this book because it was so packed with wonderful words and expressions, many of which I had never even heard of. As I read the introduction, I couldn't believe that so many young people entering college today have, for example, never heard of Watergate, are unfamiliar with cassette tapes, and draw a blank at the phrase "you sound like a broken record," but then again, a survey a few years back did show that more Americans can identify the Three Stooges than the three branches of our executive government, and sadly many young people believe history is boring and stupid. While many of the retroterms identified and explained by Mr. Keyes were completely new to me, that just proves the point he was making at the beginning. What's baffling or ancient history to your generation is a well-known reference or term used by another. However, because I have read a lot of older books, some of the terms that supposedly are a mystery to my generation were quite familiar, such as davenport (my preferred word for couch, actually!), icebox, victrola, Hays Code, and Comstock Act. Mr. Keyes doesn't just limit his book to 19th and 20th century retrotalk, but goes far back in history in some cases, such as for "cut a Gordian knot," "Pyrrhic victory," and "hanging by a thread." The book is divided into categories such as comic books, literature, university subjects, sports, personal names, transportation, and television. I also found it helpful as a historical fiction writer, as I discovered that some of the phrases and words I've used in my writing hadn't been coined back then!

However, I felt that a bit of a closer proofreading/editing job might have been needed, as I discovered a couple of embarrassing errors. For example, "The Little Old Lady from Pasadena" is credited to The Beach Boys instead of Jan and Dean (did The Beach Boys have a less famous version of it or something?), and Wally Cleaver is identified as Beaver Cleaver's father instead of his brother! And even though I share Mr. Keyes's liberal views, I felt it was a bit unprofessional for him to so clearly advertise his stance throughout certain parts of the book. This isn't a political book, even though it does deal with some retrotalk that originated in politics. A good writer isn't supposed to let his or her personal bias show; I know I probably would have thrown the book down in disgust and not finished it had a right-wing writer been airing his own conservative views unnecessarily! Finally, I was turned off by how Boomer-centric much of the book was, particularly because Mr. Keyes says he was born in 1945, which would make him one of the youngest members of the Silent Generation, not a Boomer as he seems to think he is. I rolled my eyes whenever I read something like "Many Boomers have happy memories of..." or "If you ask a Boomer..." Why does this generation always find a way to make every single issue always come back to them and be all about their generation? I'm not a Boomer, but I'm pretty sure that most people in my generation know what a Magic Marker is, for example, and are familiar with tv shows from the Fifties and Sixties that we've seen on Nick at Nite or watched with an older member of the family! I also thought that short schrift was given to more current retrotalk.

In spite of the shortcomings, however, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in language and linguistics. It's always fascinating to see how language evolves and develops, and how things which are cutting-edge and familiar in one era are almost obsolete in another.

When my father, age 94, hears a phrase like "juggernaut" he shows off with a convoluted--and usually incorrect--story about its origin. Now I have "I Love It When You Talk Retro" to set matters straight. And no, Dad, juggernaut is NOT a German WWI term, Ralph Keyes explains it comes from the Hindu deity Jagannath...see the book for the full explanation and photo. For me "Retro" falls into three categories: a slideshow of my life (Woodstock Nation, Flower Children, Rosebud, Chauncey Gardiner), explanations for things I always hear by never really could define (What the hell is a catbird seat anyway?)and letting the cat out of the bag about knowledge that made me feel superior (Potemkin village, Pangloss, Miss Haversham, and Comstockery.) What's interesting is that the value of this book will expand with time. The further we move away from these origins, the more confused we will become by their lingering references. Cultural literacy demands Retro fluency and this will be the classic reference. Even better: it's a fun read...crispy chips of insights. Bet you can't read just one section at a time. And Dad, Avatar, is also from the Hindu, and has nothing to do with birds and French!

This delightful book gives the reader the origins and meanings of a multitude of catch phrases that you have heard, but were perhaps not sure of. It is a quick read. I have bought a copy as a gift for my son, who loves words, but is too young to know many of the phrases.

Not only a reference though. It's fun too. For a writer like me, even if you lived the retro talk, you tend to forget. This is great to refresh your memory and grab the feeling of early American speech. Grandma never did learn to say "refrigerator." And gosh darn it, watch that talk about 45's if you want to be cool with the kiddies.

Quite a few expressions we Americans use are out-of-date expressions that we nonetheless know the meaning of, more or less. But, even among those that we use, we often do not completely understand the roots of the expression. Well, in this rather interesting book, author and wordsmith Ralph Keyes goes through many retro expressions, and tells you exactly what they mean.

I must say that I found this to be a rather interesting book. The author spread a nice, wide net in finding lots of expressions and covering their meanings. Now, as you might expect he could not possibly cover *every* expression out there, so you will no doubt find expressions missing that you would like explained. But, that said, this is a very good book on the subject, one that I am quite glad that I checked out.