Dude! Who says that?

So check this out. According to the Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, an 1877 reference from the painter and sculptor Frederick Remington states: "Don't send me any more [drawings of] women or any more dudes" This was the first recoded use of the word. By 1883, dude was in wide use. In June of that same year its popularity was noted in a recording of the North Adams Transcript:

"The new coined word 'dude'...has traveled over the country with a great deal of rapidity since but two months ago it grew into general use in New York." By 1885, it was in such common use that it appeared in an entry in Ulysses S. Grant's Personal Memoirs: "Before the car I was in had started, a dapper little fellow--he would be called a dude at this day--stepped in."

Source: Randomhouse.com : The Mavens' Word of the Day, June 21, 2001

No kidding? That's too cool.

The other day, I’m sitting in my office when my cell phone rings. While it’s not unusual for me to get a personal call during the work day, this one was from one of my crew who would ordinarily be at work. Immediately I thought, “damn, must be swell and I’m stuck here for the rest of the day.” Since I was in the middle of something, I let it ring thru to voicemail and checked it a few minutes later.

Listening to his message, I could hardly believe my ears. Apparently, he wasn’t at the beach, he was at home and happened to have the game show “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” on TV while eating his lunch. The surprise came when he said that the game show actually used Riptionary.com as the one-thousand dollar question. Now that’s cool for sure, but what’s even more wicked is the cat on the hot seat actually got the question right.

Since the question was only worth a grand, I'd like to think it’s because Riptionary has somehow gained a following (or at least some awareness) in some circles of mainstream society. Then again, it could have just been dumb luck. Nahh - what are the odds of that?

Either way, to borrow a favorite expression from my good friend Nibblett, and incidentally the the one that called me, “that’s just too cool for words.”