Date:    Wed, 27 May 1998 02:53:44 EDT
<br>From:    Bapopik <Bapopik[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM>
<br>Subject: Rat Pack Lingo (long!)
<br>
<br>      These are taken from the recent books and magazines about the late Frank
<br>Sinatra.
<br>
<br>      From ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: SINATRA (SPECIAL COLLECTOR'S ISSUE), SUMMER
<br>1998, pg. 67, cols. 3-4:
<br>
<br>"Talkin' the Talk" by Nancy Bilyeau
<br>A LITTLE HEY-HEY//A good time--not necessarily sex--in the company of a woman
<br>(otherwise known as a _broad_ or _chick_)
<br>GASOLINE//Jack Daniel's, Sinatra's beverage of choice
<br>GAS//A swinging time--the Pack had a _gas_ of a weekend (Syn: a _ring-a-ding_
<br>time)
<br>GASSER//Person who makes a _gas_ happen
<br>BIRD//Either the male organ ("How'd your _bird_ do last night?") or a _bird_'s
<br>favorite pastime (In 1964's _Robin and the Seven Hoods_, Dean Martin says:
<br>"I'm a _bird_ lover, and I don't mean pigeons")
<br>CHARLEY//What the Rat Packers called one another
<br>THE BIG CASINO//Death (After a doctor shows Richard Conte some ominous X-rays
<br>in _Ocean's 11_, Conte says, "Look, Doc, give it to me straight, is it the
<br>_Big Casino_?")
<br>PALLY//Dean Martin's nickname for everyone, whether a lifelong friend or a
<br>bellhop
<br>CLYDE//All-purpose noun; meaning can be negative (In _Ocean's 11_, Shirley
<br>MacLaine calls out to a friend, "You're wasting your time with that _Clyde_,
<br>honey, he's a lose") or innocuous ("Pass the _Clyde_")
<br>BUNTER//A bore, an undesirable; the anti-_gasser_ (syn: _Harvey_)
<br>ENDSVILLE//What happens to a party overpopulated by _bunters_ and _Harveys_
<br>"I THINK IT'S GOING TO RAIN"//A Sinatra-only call to the Pack that it's time
<br>to leave an _endsville_ happening
<br>THE BIG G//God (In _Seven Hoods_, Sinatra says of Edward G. Robinson's
<br>recently deceased character, "Big Jim has gone to meet _the Big G_.")
<br>GOOD NIGHT ALL//Fair warning to drop a subject (and if it came from Sinatra,
<br>you'd better drop it fast!)
<br>
<br>     From SINATRA: A TRIBUTE TO OL' BLUE EYES (Hit Sensations, Fanzine
<br>International), pg. 41, cols. 1-3:
<br>
<br>_The Rat Pack Lingo_
<br>BABY:  Used as an exclamation as well as a term of endearment.
<br>BAG:  As in "my bag," a person's particular interest.
<br>BARN BURNER:  A very stylish, classy woman.
<br>BEETLE:  A girl who dresses in flashy clothes.
<br>BIG-LEAGUER:  A resourceful man who can handle any situation.
<br>BOMBSVILLE:  Any kind of failure in life.
<br>BROAD:  Affectionate term for a girl or woman with sex appeal.
<br>BUM:  A person who is despised, most frequently linked to people in the media.
<br>CHARLEY:  A general term for anyone whose name has been forgotten.
<br>CHICK:  A young and invariably pretty girl.
<br>CLAM-BAKE:  A party of get-together.
<br>COOL:  A term of admiration for a person or place.  An alternative word
<br>meaning the same thing is crazy.
<br>CREEP:  A man who is disliked for any reason whatsoever.
<br>CRUMB:  Someone for whom it is impossible to show respect.
<br>DAME:  A generally derogatory term for a probably unattractive woman.  The
<br>word dog is also sometimes substituted.
<br>DIG:  A term of appreciation for a person or thing, as in "I dig her."
<br>DYING:  As in "I'm dying" which means "I'm slightly upset."
<br>END:  A word to signify that someone or something is the very best.
<br>ENDSVILLE:  A term to express total failure, and similar to bombsville.  See
<br>ville.
<br>FINK:  A man who cannot be relied upon, whose loyalties are suspect.
<br>FIRST BASE:  The start of something, usually applied in terms of failure when
<br>someone has failed to reach it.
<br>FRACTURE:  As in "That fractures me," meaning "That's an amusing joke."
<br>GAS:  A great situation as in "The day was a gas."
<br>GASOLINE:  A term for alcohol, more specifically, Frank's favorite drink, Jack
<br>Daniel's Bourbon Whisky.
<br>GASSER:  A man or woman highly admired, considered to be the best or "The
<br>End!"
<br>GOFER:  Someone who does menial jobs or runs errands, as in "go for drinks,"
<br>etc.
<br>GROOVE:  As in "in the groove," a term of admiration or approval.
<br>LET'S LOSE CHARLEY:  A term used among intimates who want to get rid of a bore
<br>in their company.
<br>LOCKED-UP:  As in "All locked-up," a term for a forthcoming date or
<br>engagement, private or public.
<br>LOSER:  Anyone who has made a mess of their life, drinks too much, makes
<br>enemies, etc.
<br>MISH-MASH:  Similar to loser but refers specifically to a woman who is mixed
<br>up.
<br>NOWHERE:  A term of failure, usually applied to a person, viz "He's nowhere."
<br>ODDS:  Used in connection with important decisions, as in "The odds aren't
<br>right," meaning not to go somehwere, accept anything or buy something.
<br>PLAYER:  Term for a man who is a gambler by nature, who makes friends easily,
<br>and never gives up trying.
<br>PUNKS:  Any undesirable, in particular mobsters, gangsters or criminals.
<br>RING-A-DING!:  A term of approval for a beautiful girl, i.e. "What a ring-a-
<br>ding broad!"
<br>SCAM:  To cheat at gambling, as in "Hey, what's the scam?"
<br>SCRAMSVILLE:  To run off.
<br>SHARP:  A person who dresses well and with style.
<br>SMASHED:  A word used to describe someone who is drunk.
<br>SOLID:  Definite, reliable.
<br>SQUARE:  A person of limited character, unhip.
<br>SWING:  To hang out and drink, smoke, sing, generally get real loose.
<br>VILLE:  A suffix used to indicate changes in any given situation.
<br>
<br>      From FRANK SINATRA AND THE LOST ART OF LIVIN':  THE WAY YOU WEAR YOUR
<br>HAT (1997) by Bill Zehme, pp. 34-36:
<br>
<br>      After taking English lessons from Sinatra, while making _The Pride and
<br>the Passion_, young Sophia Loren could be heard peppering casual conversation
<br>with the phrases: "How's your cock?" and "It was a fucking gas!" (He told her
<br>that _cock_ and _fucking_ were innocent endearments, to be employed freely and
<br>often.  Of Loren, incidentally, Frank liked to say, "She's the mostest!")
<br>Noel Coward, who occasionally moved amid the Sinatra group, was spotted at one
<br>of Frank's performances happily crowing: "It's a gas!  It's a gas!"  Even bona
<br>fide pally Peter Lawford tended to abuse the privileged argot: "Like, we were
<br>getting off the boat the other day in Le Havre," he told an interviewer, "and
<br>this French dame comes up to me and says, '_Etes-vous un Rat?_'  She's asking
<br>me, am I a Rat?  I don't dig.  Then I dig.  She's asking me about the Rat
<br>Pack, you dig?  But there's no word in French for Rat Pack, you dig?"
<br>     _Navigational tips for the uninitiated:_  "A GAS IS A GOOD SITUATION,"
<br>the Leader once translated for Art Buchwald, in an unprecedented act of
<br>decoding.  "An evening can be a wonderful gas.  Or you can have a gas of a
<br>weekend."  Therefore, a GASSER was one who instilled such delight: "Applies to
<br>a person.  He's a big-leaguer, the best.  He can hit the ball right out of the
<br>park."  (More BROADS were gassers than were guys, understandably so.  Should a
<br>gasser do something wonderful, she would be rewarded with the exclamation,
<br>CRAZY! or maybe COO-COO!  When pleased by a pally, meanwhile, Frank showed
<br>approval by remarking, YOU CRAZY BASTARD!)  On the other hands, a BUNTER would
<br>be "the opposite of a gasser...a NOWHERE.  He can never get to first base."
<br>Likewise, there was HARVEY: "A square.  Harvery, or Harv, is the typical
<br>tourist who goes into a French restaurant and says, 'What's ready?'"  CLYDE
<br>was no better, for _clydes_ were DULLSVILLE personified, were instructed to
<br>SCRAMSVILLE, lest they render an evening ENDSVILLE.  Otherwise, _clyde_ was an
<br>all-purpose noun employed when words, wit, or memory failed.  Explained Frank:
<br>"If I want someone to pass the salt, I say 'Pass the clyde.'  'I don't like
<br>her clyde,' might mean, 'I don't like her voice.'  'I have to go to the clyde'
<br>could mean 'I have to go to the party.'"
<br>      If said party cooked, which is to say, was MOTHERY, which is to say, was
<br>wild and wicked, then all present would bear witness to a RING-A-DING-DING
<br>time, after which couples might pair off to make a LITTLE HEY-HEY.  Unless a
<br>FINK had infiltrated the scene to queer the odds.  "A _fink_ is a loser," said
<br>Frank.  "_Fink_ comes from a strikebreaker named Fink who killed his friend
<br>during a strike.  So to me a fink is a guy who would kill his own friends."
<br>(Not exactly.  Actually, "rat" and "fink" can be synonyms--ed.)  (Dead
<br>friends, by the way, bought the BIG CASINO in the sky.)  Further: "If a guy
<br>comes into a room with a broad and someone asks about his wife, the guy will
<br>say, 'GOOD NIGHT, ALL,' which means, 'DROP IT, CHARLEY.'"  Charley, in that
<br>case, would be a fink, or CRUMB.  Thus the phrase LET'S LOSE CHARLEY.  But
<br>then every pally was affectionately called Charley at one point or another,
<br>male or female, and also SAM, but mostly Charley.  (Lawford was Charley the
<br>Seal, for his nicotine cough, or Charley Pentagon or Charley Washington,
<br>because he married a Kennedy.  Sometimes Frank simply called him Brother-in-
<br>Lawford.)  Then again, a CHICK might easily FRACTURE, or amuse, or devastate,
<br>a man who got a load of her nice set of CHARLEYS.  If that man was Sinatra,
<br>and a date was made, then he would be ALL LOCKED UP for that night, so he
<br>would bid his boys adieu, telling them, "TA-TA."
<br>