The Left Handed Dictionary [antikvár]

IntroductionPlJhf^f^f'lr'' i M V^f '. 1 ^ ' I .Many years ago, when we were both working as reporters on Variety, in Hollywood, Ted Taylor, a man with some offi |! M ,the most varied and complete files in the world, showed me. . .'a number of index cards on which he had written wonderful ' definitions of his own composition. They were tart, tongue-in-'cheek, opposite descriptions of words, reflecting his insight . ' ', and views.,Now, there must be a hundred books which could bedredged out of Ted's fifes. This was the one about which I , . became enthusiastic. So enthusiastic, in fact, that I began coining and adding definitions of my own to his hst. And Ted kept writing new ones, too.As the years passed, the collection grew and we decided to have it published as a book. We enlarged its dimensions and combed literature, folk sayings, and the popular press for the best of definitions written by others. We made it into a game we played at parties. We collected amusing on-the-spur word meanings from friends. These new definitions and other contributions of writers we knew, made directly for this book, are indicated by an ["]. Every effort has been made to trace other collected definitions to their original sources, and where no definite credit can be given the attribution is to Anon., or his son (that clever little bastard) Anon., Jr.As the result of receiving a set of paper napkins with Southern words and meanings by a friend passing through Charleston, S. C., the author began recording New Yorkese and will soon launch a lexicon of that somewhat bewildering language for the enlightenment of visitors to Manhattan. The New Yorkese definitions as well as all those which are un-credited are original ones.Many of the latter appeared as a feature, "The Left-handed , , Dictionary," in Cosmopolitan over a period of eighteen months ' i- r.