Liz just sent me the link for a really cool article from the June 2004 issue of Popular Science. PS asked a very "wired" writer (Larry Smith, former executive editor of the now-defunct Yahoo! Internet Life, in fact) to spend 10 days at the beginning of the year in 1954. Well, not literally. He wasn't being sent back in a time machine. He didn't have to use hep slang, or wear a wool flannel suit... but he was not "allowed," by the terms of the experiment, to use any popular technology less than 50 years old. No cel. No computer. No iPod. No VCR. Not even Thinsulate for his winter coat. (He lives in NYC.) The results were... illuminating.
And I, muahaha, picked up a couple of choice new tidbits from his discoveries. First, "ZIP code" didn't have anything to do with being "zippy." (Well, the term deliberately implied it, but it's an acronym-- it stands for something: Zone Improvement Plan.) And here's what surprised me the most-- ZIP codes weren't implemented until 1963, and even then they were not mandatory. Funny, I'd have sworn the ZIP code book on Mom's desk was more decrepit than that... except there's a picture of Mr. Zip on the cover, so it must be post-1970.
Here's the other bit (wow, another Jack Kerouac reference-- I really should read him someday): the term "Beat Generation" wasn't coined because of their strongly rhythmic poetry, or the bongo drums they played in smoky subterranean coffeehouses. It's actually short for "beatific" or "beatitude," referring to the state of spiritual bliss they strove for.
Posted by gris at August 5, 2004 10:23 PM