" It is very common in this
sense. For instance, I note among the headlines of a New York paper,
"Mr. So-and-so scores Yellow Journalism." Talking of Yellow Journalism,
by the way, the expressions "a beat," and "a scoop," for what we in
England call an "exclusive" item of news, were unknown to me until I
went to America. I was a little bewildered, too, when I was told of a
family which "lived on air-tights." Their diet consisted of canned (or,
as we should say, tinned) provisions.
The most popular slang expression of the day is "to rubberneck," or,
more concisely, "to rubber." Its primary meaning is to crane the neck in
curiosity, to pry round the corner, as it were.[W] But it has numerous
and surprising extensions of meaning. It appears to be one of the laws
of slang that when a phrase strikes the popular fancy, it is pressed
into service on every possible or impossible occasion. Another
favourite expression is "That cuts no ice with me."[X] I was unable to
ascertain either its origin or its precise significance. On the other
hand, a piece of slang which supplies a "felt want," and will one day, I
believe, pass into the literary language, is "the limit" in the sense of
"le comble.
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