Summer Reading: from OED to OMG

Hartford Courant, June 20, 2009

By Rob Kyff

Gen X'ers with iPod buds stuck into their ears might puzzle over the meaning of terms derived from phonograph records: "flip side," "like a broken record" and "in the groove." Ralph Keyes is here to help with "I Love It When You Talk Retro" (St. Martin's, $25.95), which describes the origins of terms based on the technology, politics or culture of days gone by.

I never knew, for instance, that "doofus" is derived from "Dufus," a dimwitted character in the Popeye comic strip, or that the first "truth squad" was a group of Republicans who followed President Harry Truman as he campaigned for Adlai Stevenson in 1952.