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Bad hats, cat's pyjamas, banting, goops, creatures, and playing possum - what WERE people going on about during the Golden Age of detective fiction? Caroline Crampton of Shedunnit podcast and I get sleuthing into the slang of the mystery novels of the 1920s and 1930s.
Versions of this episode were originally released by Caroline's Shedunnit podcast and the Shedunnit Book Club. Find both at shedunnitshow.com. There are extra bits not included in this cut!
EXTRA MATERIALS:
Learn all about opossums with this episode of Ologies.
Regarding the ha ha part of Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha! in Quebec: “the haha part of the name is an archaic French word for an unexpected obstacle or abruptly ending path”.
William Banting’s Letter on Corpulence, if you want it.
“The effect was to make making love into even more of a euphemism than it was before. It ceased being a description of negotiations towards what was hoped to become a more intimate relationship, and became a cliché for its ultimate expression.”
About “I would not call the Queen my aunt”.
To hear all about a golden detective with some language that didn’t date well, listen to my Veronica Mars recap podcast!
Otherlusionists:
Hear Caroline on Alter Ego, talking about crime writers in the 1930s and 40s using pseudonyms because detective fiction, while popular, was not considered reputable. Caroline also helped with the Novel Remedy episode, about detective novels as convalescence literature.
There’s more about military codes and comms in SOS. and about the etymology of ‘poll’ in Election Lexicon. And we covered banting in episode 356 of Answer Me This, although I had clean forgotten until Caroline brought it up!
YOUR RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
bunt, 1. noun: the baggy centre of a fishing net or a sail.
2. noun: a disease of wheat caused by a smut fungus, the spores of which smell of rotten fish.
3. verb, 1: baseball (of a batter) gently tap (a pitched ball) so that it does not roll beyond the infield. 2. Butt with the head or horns. Noun, baseball: an act of bunting a ball.
CREDITS:
This episode was originally produced for Shedunnit podcast and book club by Caroline Crampton and Euan McAleece. Hear the show and join the book club at shedunnit.show.
The original Allusionist music is by Martin Austwick. Download his songs at palebirdmusic.com, listen to his podcasts Song By Song and Neutrino Watch, and hear more of his composition on the science podcast for kids Maddie’s Sound Explorers.
Find the show at twitter.com/allusionistshow, facebook.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/helenzaltzman and instagram.com/allusionistshow.
The Allusionist is an independent podcast. If you’re able and inclined to support the show, head over to patreon.com/allusionist, and get behind the scenes info about each episode, fortnightly video livestreams with me, and access to the Allusioverse Discord community which is a very nice place to be.
