From AK to young G

Do you need a translator to understand popular music these days? The Entertainment Monitor magazine thinks you do. And they’ve graciously offered to be your guide through the “hybrid labyrinth” of slang words like “weed,” “boom box,” and “D.J.”

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The Entertainment Monitor is a bimonthly magazine which covers film, music, television, and the Internet in an attempt to inform concerned parents about “the content of popular entertainment today.”

As part of this mission, they have compiled a growing slang dictionary called “Pop Talk,” which begins with a warning to parents:

“Beware, those of you who think you’re hip to what your kids are saying, you may have a false sense of security. I was familiar with slang in the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s, but the language of the 90’s is changing at lightening [sic] speed.”

Entertainment Monitor, May/June ’96

Are you down* with the latest 90’s-speak? See if you can guess the meaning of the following slang terms (according to the Entertainment Monitor definitions, of course):

  • Or skip the quiz and take a look right now at some excerpts from the Entertainment Monitor‘s slang dictionary.

*be down – in compliance or in synch with


1. tootsee roll

A dance rolling a person’s buttocks
Candy
Having sex

2. hit me on the hip

Have sex with me
Loan me some money
Page me

3. rub-a-dub

Kill someone (“rub” them out)
Have sex
A massage

4. locs

Locals
Imitation Docs (Doc Martens)
Sunglasses

5. flossin’

Being attentive to oral hygiene
Hanging out
Wearing a thong bikini

6. wasted

Exhausted
Someone who has been killed (i.e. “He got wasted”)
Being intoxicated on drugs or alcohol

7. sister stone

Marijuana
The crack pipe
The bench a homeless person sleeps on

8. props

Drug paraphrenalia
Dramatic accessories
Proper respect

9. four deep

Four people in a car
Four people having sex
Dead and buried (the cheap way)

10. buckle bunnies

The replacement for Hush Puppies
A particular breed of rabbit
Country slang for groupies

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

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