If you've ever wanted to learn how to talk like a
two-bit criminal in a Jim Thompson novel or a Dashiell
Hammett story, then Straight From The Fridge Dad is
the book for you. Others wanting to learn the lingo
used by hip jazz cats such as Cab Calloway and Louis
Armstrong should also search out this attractive
volume of 'righteous jive.'
Lovingly compiled by Max Décharné, erstwhile Gallon
Drunk drummer and current lead singer of garage
rockers The Flaming Stars, Straight From The Fridge
Dad oozes cool from A through to Z. Named after a
slang expression meaning 'cool', it is filled with
hundreds of entries taken from a variety of
often-referenced sources that include pulp crime
novels, country, R&B and jazz recordings, films noir,
the autobiographies of distinguished bluesmen and key
rock 'n' roll movies like The Girl Can't Help It.
Browsing the collection leaves the reader in awe of
the imaginative and often humorous use of language
displayed by the crime scribes in particular,
encouraging one to re-visit the works of the finest,
such as W.R. Burnett, Nelson Algren and Mickey
Spillane.
Unsurprisingly - considering the source material - a
large number of the dictionary's entries relate to the
ever-popular hipster worlds of sex and drugs and
there's also a fair bit of crime jargon to boot.
Entries range from reasonably familiar terms like
'back door man,' 'moonshine,' 'pokey' and 'reefer,' to
more unusual ones such as 'marble city' (cemetery),
'Saturday night special' (cheap handgun), 'barbecue'
(good looking woman), 'chicken dinner' (pretty young
girl) and the peculiar 'boil my cabbage,' which is
apparently slang for sex and was frequently used by
female blues singers in the 1920s. The terms date from
around the early 1900s through to the 1960s, and for
this reason Décharné's book is considerably more
comprehensive than the first collections of slang,
such as the fantastically-named Babs Gonzales's
fantastically-named "Boptionary."
Although most likely to be the kind of book that the
reader will only dip into occasionally over a cup of
coffee (or a 'shot of java, nix on the moo-juice'),
this exhaustive guide is perfect for the wannabe
hipster and will slip neatly into the inside lining of
any zoot suit. In short, Straight From The Fridge
Dad is, well, straight from the fridge. And that's
not just 'applesauce' on my part.
Reviewed by Chris Wiegand
