Word Origins

*THOROUGHFARE

New York perhaps thought it had created a new word when it opened its first section of cross-state toll road in 1954, the Throughway, which quickly became known by the non-standard, shortened spelling of Thruway. Beyond the temporary distinction of applying Throughway to a single highway, there is nothing in it that did not already exist in the six hundred-year-old word thoroughfare. Thorough is the ancient spelling of through; fare, used for “passage money,” formerly meant “passage, way.” And thoroughfare has long indicated a “through way between places.”

*Inspired by Charles Funk (1881–1957)

Famous Twentieth Century Ians

 

To American moviegoers and television viewers, the name Ian conjures up a number of English actors: One responsible for a famous actor, another as the lone American actor. The name is of Scottish Gaelic origin and Scotland’s version of John. It was one of the top 10 names in the United Kingdom throughout the 1960s. As of 2019, the name has been in the top 100 in the United States every year since 1982.

Arranged upper left to lower right:

Ian Wolfe (1896-1992) Prolific uncredited American actor
Ian Hunter (1900-1975) English actor; The Adventures of Robin Hood
Ian Fleming (1908–1964), British novelist, creator of James Bond
Ian Holm (1931-2020) English actor; Time Bandits, Lord of the Rings
Ian McKellen (1939-) English actor; X-Men, Lord of the Rings
Ian McShane (1942-) English actor; Lovejoy, Deadwood
Ian Ogilvy (1943-) English actor, novelist; The Return of the Saint

This is Jim Rockford

 

It's Shirley at the Plant and Pot. There's just no easy way to tell you this, Jim--we did everything we could. Your fern died.

Jim's answering machine: Coulter City Wildcat, 1976
Guest star: John Anderson

Peanut Butter Comics

Skippy is an American comic strip written and drawn by Percy Crosby, and published from 1923 to 1945. A highly popular, acclaimed and influential feature about rambunctious fifth-grader Skippy Skinner, his friends and his enemies, it was adapted into an Oscar-winning 1931 film starring Jackie Cooper, a novel and a radio show. An early influence on cartoonist Charles Schulz and an inspiration for his Peanuts, Skippy is considered one of the classics of the form. Nothing like it had ever been seen before in the comic strips. The brilliance of Skippy was that it was the first kid cartoon with a definable and complex personality grounded in daily life.

Today, the most well-known extension of the Skippy name is peanut butter. When the California food packer Joseph L. Rosefield began to sell its newly developed hydrogenated peanut butter in 1932, it was labeled "Skippy" without Crosby's permission, resulting in Crosby invalidating the trademark in 1934. Rosefield persisted in using the name. After Crosby was committed to a mental institution and after the passage of the Lanham Act in 1946, Rosefield was granted rights to the trademark.

Rosefield sold the brand to Best Foods in 1955. Its successor companies claimed rights to the trademark over the objection of Crosby's heirs, and much litigation has occurred on this point over the decades. Skippy is currently manufactured by Hormel Foods, which bought the brand from Unilever in 2013. Skippy is the second oldest leading peanut butter brand after Peter Pan (1920).

Word Origins

*BIGWIG

Although humorously used to designate a person of real or self-fancied importance, the start of the allusion was in fact indicated by the size of the wig a man wore, back in the times of Queen Anne of England and Louis XIV of France. Wigs had been courtly fashion for a half-century or more, but by the beginning of the eighteenth century, they attained exaggerated proportions, some covering the back and shoulders and floating down the chest. The status of a man was marked by the style of wig he wore, and the more important in state or occupation, the more imposing his wig. Eventually, the fashion passed, though the wig or peruke is still retained in British courts of law.

*Inspired by Charles Funk (1881–1957)

Richard Kimble's Brief Encounters

A fellow worker (acquitted of an actual murder) appears to help Kimble escape the local sheriff but he puts the doctor in more danger of being apprehended.

Flight From the Final Demon, 1964
Guest stars: Ed Nelson, Carrol O'Connor

Reel Character Series

 

DORO MERANDE (1892-1975)

Whether a dowdy small-town snoop, a maid, gossip, a terse secretary, or a sour neighbor, Merande's dry wit, high nasal warble, half‐opened eyelids, a smile of childish innocence, or a bewildered look, made her one of the most endearing characters of stage, film, and television. It might have been overkill to have her in lengthy roles, but she pops up delightfully in small doses. I offer a couple of her performances in film and television plus a film of considerably less obscurity.

Prior to television's rising popularity, she could be captured in all her comedic glory in 1949's, Cover Up. Merande's character, Hildy—the maid to end all maids—with her casual asides suggests she is completely out of touch with reality. Far from it. She is a walking encyclopedia of everything that goes on in town, delivering astute, cutting opinions as if they were compliments. It is absurd to Hildy that the prime suspect in an assumed murder is her trusted and kind employer. She takes it upon herself to deliberately set fire to his old college coat—a key piece of evidence—in the backyard. She nonchalantly confesses to him in passing, "I had a little accident with your beaver coat. I was cleaning it and it caught fire—burned up completely."

One of Merande's memorable television performances was in a 1958 black comedy episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents entitled, "Mrs. Herman and Mrs. Fenimore." Merande is a poor widow who has devised a fool-proof plan to kill her crotchety live-in uncle, Russell Collins, for the inheritance money. Merande is delighted when a struggling actress, Mary Astor, becomes her new tenant. Through feigned empathy, Astor elevates Merande to a new level of sophistication and they agree to work together on Collin's demise. But the gullible Merande is unaware she has been duped. Her dumbfounded big-eyed stare at the end seals the episode.

There are many other roles of varying length for Merande, but she was never quite so visually funny in her sporadic appearances in the Cold War paranoia spoof, The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming (1966). Merande is one of the few things that has remained timeless about the film. Dressed in pajamas and robe, she is the ever-vigilant beacon during the assumed invasion. In a burst-out-laughing scene, we see Merande—about four feet off the floor still seated in a chair—placed upon the wall by the Russians to keep her away from the telephone. Her stone-deaf husband, Parker Fennelly, not only cannot hear her screams behind her knitted muzzle, he is completely unaware that she is on the kitchen wall. The Russians were thoughtful enough to include her knitting needle, though not an easy reach. When a friend arrives to rescue her, he finally turns around to ask what she is doing hanging up on the wall. It is a hilarious cartoon moment.

Note: Merande's final role was in the remake of The Front Page (1974). The actress was attending a "Honeymooners" anniversary special in Miami when she suffered a stroke and died at a local hospital.