Author Stikes Nerve with 'Retro Talk'

Herald-Times (Bloomington, IN), April 26, 2009

By Mike Leonard   

Author Ralph Keyes has written one of the most entertaining reference works of all time with his newly published book, “I Love It When You Talk Retro: Hoochie Coochie, Double Whammy, Drop a Dime, and the Forgotten Origins of American Speech.”

Just about every idiomatic expression or popular culture reference you can think of is researched and listed in the book, ranging from the ones listed in the book title to terms such as “talk turkey,” “top banana,” “limelight,” “not worth a tinker’s damn” and “nudge, nudge, wink, wink.”

Most of us have heard the term, “red herring,” used to describe a diversionary tactic, for example. Keyes tracks the saying back to Elizabethan England, “where smoked herring, a pungent comestible of bright red color like that of smoked salmon today, was dragged along the ground by fugitives to throw pursuing dogs off the scent.”

“I didn’t know that one either,” the Yellow Springs, Ohio, resident said in a phone interview last week. “Another one of my favorites is scuttlebutt. I mean, we’ve all heard the term, ‘Hey, what’s the scuttlebutt on that?’ As it turns out, the butt was the wooden cask that held water on the old sailing ships, and the scuttle was the dipping hole. So the two terms came together to describe the place where the sailors would go to get a drink of water and share gossip. "It’s very much a relative of the term, ‘water cooler talk,’ which, I’m certain, is a retro term in the making,” he said.

Keyes is a lover of language, and his book is neither stodgy nor cumbersome. It can be read in a linear fashion, from beginning to end, or browsed like a magazine.

What has been interesting is the furor — the tempest in a teapot — that ensued after the newspaper trade magazine, Editor & Publisher, printed an article written by Keyes, pointing out the positive and negative aspects of communicating with cultural references that may be lost on a significant segment of readers.

"I was kind of stunned. I was surprised by the vehemence of some of the reactions. I got a kick out of it, but I was surprised,” he said.

Many writers who read the piece accused Keyes of trying to bleed all of the color out of writing. Others took an opposing view — that Keyes had rightly reminded writers to be mindful of their audience, and that one person’s colorful cultural expression might be another’s “what the heck?” moment, or, worse, no better than a cliche.

“I think the problem is, in a way, it’s like when you’re reading somebody, and they throw in a bunch of French or Latin phrases and they’re not helping you understand something better. They’re trying to show off their command of French and Latin,” Keyes said. “I love Maureen Dowd (of the New York Times), but I have to say, she’s the queen of retro talk. I don’t think she can write a column without making at least a couple of references that will make younger readers scratch their heads,” he said. “And if Dowd’s the queen, then Chris Matthews of MSNBC has to be the king. He once made a reference to a ‘Perry Como calmness’ and, sure, I got it, and it was a good image. But he’s 63 and I’m 64. Are listeners in their 20s going to have any idea what he’s talking about?”

To be clear, Keyes loves the rich heritage of colorful expressions and found it fascinating, if not incredibly laborious, to track down their original meanings. “When I first started writing books on language 20 years ago, it was all about maximizing the available data,” he said. “Now, with all of the Internet resources, the challenge is flip-flopped. Now the challenge is to narrow and minimize the accessible resources, and if you don’t, you’ll drown.

“I do want to say that what I wrote in E&P was interpreted by some as saying you should never use these references, or you should dumb-down your copy, and that’s not at all what I was trying to say,” he explained. “I think it is important to be mindful when you make these references and not assume you’re only speaking to people of your generation.

“I am not saying we should never use them. They add color and spice to your writing — if you use them judiciously.”