Date: Mon, 11 Aug 1997 21:05:27 -0400 From: "Barry A. Popik" Subject: Minivan; IHOP's supper/dinner; the Wave; NYPL again MINIVAN "We added 'minivan' to the English language." --Sports Illustrated ad, 11 August 1997, pages 36-37, "Caravan, The New Dodge." There's an explanation for everything. A six-month subscription to Sports Illustrated began to arrive, with my father's name on it. My brother-in-law and I were puzzled. My father never read Sports Illustrated when he was alive. What time after he died did he decide to become a dentist? I asked my sister when she returned from her former nanny's wedding in England. At what time after dad's death did he become interested in the swimsuit issue? "He had unused frequent flyer miles. I checked it off." There's an explanation for everything! Anyway, in the ad mentioned above, Dodge takes credit for "minivan." It is true that the Caravan was announced in 1983, came out in 1984, and was a tremendous success. However-- Playboy, November 1984, page 112, has, "Volkwagen of Germany created the minivan in 1949, at least a decade before America though up the bigger ones. (...) Unfortunately for VW, though, Chrysler has invented the American minivan--Dodge Caravan and Plymouth Voyager--and has done an absolutely bang-up job of it." Time, 3 October 1983, pg. 9, "Chrysler minivan, or 'T-wagon,' a hybrid combining the features of a station wagon and a van." Time, 13 February 1984, pg. 50, "Chrysler chairman Lee Iacocca and President Harold Sperlich first discussed building minivans in the mid-1973s, when both men were at Ford." Mid-1973s, at Ford?? NY Times, 14 September 1975, pg. 84, col. 8, "15-passenger minivans." NY Times, 14 January 1979, pg. 41, col. 1, "30 minivans." Enviroline, Congressional Info Inc., DOE Transp. Energy Conserv. Div., Report, July 1978, vol. 1, pg. 1003, "the battronic minivan electric delivery van." Jesse Sheidlower thinks "minivan" might date back to 1960. "Minibus," a sightseeing bus for zoos and parks, was manufactured by the Passenger Truck Equipment Company of Huntington Park, CA, from 1963-1980. If "minivan" was clearly being used in the 1970s, how could Chrysler have added it to the English language in 1984? Check out the two-page ad for a sports utility vehicle in the latest Wired. It shows a picture of the vehicle where the vehicle description (minivan/SUV/car) should be. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -------------------------------------------- IHOP'S DINNER/SUPPER An IHOP tv commercial now airing does a fine take on dinner/supper that was previously discussed on ADS-L. Look for it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------- THE WAVE In the Village Voice of 15 July 1997, pg. 117, cols. 2-4, was Nathan Ward's "THE DEATH OF THE WAVE: IT ONCE RULED STADIUMS. WHAT KILLED THE MAGIC?" Ward gives credit to the University of Washington's former cheerleader and later Entertainment Tonight host Robb Weller and U. of W. bandleader Bill Bissell at a Husky football game of 31 October 1981. No mention is made of an important "wave" article, Lisa Twyman's "WHENCE CAME THE WAVE? COLORADO HOCKEY OR FOOTBALL IN WASHINGTON?" in Sports Illustrated, 12 November 1984, pg. 11. Krazy George, a/k/a George Henderson, claims that he used it at Colorado Rockies hockey games, then at the nationally broadcast baseball playoff game in California between the Oakland A's and the New York Yankees, on 15 October 1981. I was in Seattle and at the U. of W. last year and forgot to verify this. I can do it when I go to the Library of Congress, though, on some future weekend. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------- N.Y.P.L., again Naomi Sims, perhaps the first "supermodel" (Vogue called her that in 1972) left her papers to the New York Public Library. She's a black model. Books on most of the other "supermodels" are downtown, unless they're actresses (which means the books are in Lincoln Center), or black (which means the books are at the Schomburg Center in Harlem). I know these centers are helpful, but the NYPL is a real pain in the ass. I went to the Schomburg Center for the Naomi Sims papers. She left six boxes of stuff. Clearly, worth a special trip, until-- "These books are in Iron Mountain. You'll have to come back in 48 hours." Iron Mountain. IRON MOUNTAIN? WHY THE-- "We don't have space. You can call first before you come. We have a book request from Friday that still didn't arrive." But if I can't come back on Wednesday, would they hold it for a week...you see, I might want to have a life. "They'll be here on Wednesday," the librarian said.