If you read the
November 15, 1992 edition of the
New York Times, you might have read a "
Styles of the Times" article about the then emerging
grunge trend. You might also have read this sidebar about the hip new slang that the kids were using:
Lexicon of Grunge:
Breaking the Code
All
subcultures speak in code;
grunge is no exception.
Megan Jasper, a 25-year old sales representative at
Caroline Records in
Seattle, provided this
lexicon of grunge-speak, coming soon to a
high school or mall near you:
WACK SLACKS: Old ripped
jeans
FUZZ: Heavy
wool sweaters
PLATS: Platform shoes
KICKERS: Heavy boots
SWINGIN’ ON THE FLIPPITY-FLOP: Hanging out
BOUND-AND-HAGGED: Staying home on a Friday or Saturday night
SCORE: Great
HARSH REALM: Bummer
COB NOBBLER: Loser
DISH: Desirable guy
BLOATED, BIG BAG OF BLOATATION: Drunk
LAMESTAIN: Uncool person
TOM-TOM CLUB: Uncool outsiders
ROCK ON: A happy goodbye
As you’ve probably guessed by now, this is all fake. Jasper was real, and she worked for
Sub Pop, but she was the perpetrator of a hoax on the
Times and a
British magazine,
Sky. Tired of all the inquiring phone calls about grunge, she cooked up the fake slang and the journalists just ate it up. And they deserved it, not for being unhip, but for being lazy and not bothering to check their facts, content to take whatever the person answering the phones said as gospel. Suckers.