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Liz Gwedhan's avatar

I really enjoyed reading this Mathew. It set me chasing for my ancient copy of 'Guys and Dolls' then for some reason I started thinking about Tom Waits - I think because someone said that Waits' characters are 'down but not out'. My Dad never mentioned Runyon but he was a great lover of Dashiel Hammet and Raymond Chandler - I guess that deliciously laconic language is the equivalent of the street slang of today.

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Henry Begler's avatar

Great essay, I've ordered the book! Demotic-American from roughly 1930-1960 is one of the best periods for English speech, right up there with Elizabethan England.

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