Amscray

The odd word in this panel from a “Patsy and Hedy” comic made me pause for thought. Even more so when the very next day I came across this panel in a current “Birds of Prey” comic. Hedy in the 1960s and Lady Blackhawk in 2011 are using what seems to me to be outmoded slang from the 1940s. Perhaps Hedy can be excused because the words are being put in her mouth by Stan Lee. Perhaps Zinda can be excused as she was frozen in a block of ice for 45 years…or was that Captain America?…. “Pig Latin” is very much American slang and has nothing at all to do with Latin. It is/was just about making normal words sound foreign by moving the first letter of a word to the end and adding “ay”. So “nix” becomes “ixnay” and “scram” becomes “amscray”. I vaguely recall the Three Stooges using those words but “ombtay” is a new one on me………

PS: It’s funny how once you become aware of something you seem to notice more examples. Spotted this one today.

Striker

Like every other minority/majority interest you care to mention there have been a number of magazines specialising in football. From Charles Buchan’s Football Monthly to Jimmy Hill’s Football Weekly, Goal, Shoot through to the glossy magazines of more recent years. I bought issue No 1 of “Striker” in January 1970 and continued buying most of the 113 issues until it faded away in March 1972. The last time I looked 4 4 2, When Saturday Comes and Match were in the newsagents carrying on the tradition.

Striker No 1   10th January 1970

Nuff said 29

A to Z of Offshore Radio

When I acquired this tape 40 (!!) years ago it was mostly documenting surprisingly recent history of just 4 or 5 years earlier. Perhaps more extensive versions of these recordings are in circulation but this 90 minute tape gives you a pretty good idea of what could be found on your transistor radio in the 1960s besides the BBC. More odd stuff for my Audio Archive.

A to Z of Offshore Radio