There is a law firm here named Bordas & Bordas. Every time I hear their radio ad, it sounds like they are saying "Bortus & Bortus" and I picture two Bortus-es (Borti?) arguing law and it just tickles my soul. I want so badly to photoshop one of their billboards...
Here is an interesting explanation offered by Robert Hendrickson, The Facts on File Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins (1997):
racket; racketeer. English pickpockets, once the best of the breed, invented the ploy of creating disturbances in the street to distract their victims while they emptied their pockets. This practice was so common that a law was passed in 1697 forbidding the throwing of firecrackers and other devices causing a racket on the city streets. From the common pickpocket ploy the old onomatopoeic English word racket, imitative like crack or bang and meaning a disturbance or loud noise, took on its additional meaning of a scheme, a dodge, illicit criminal activity. Before 1810, when it first appeared in print, the word had acquired this slang meaning in England, though it was later forgotten and the word racket for a criminal activity wasn't used again there until it was reintroduced from America along with the American Prohibition invention from it, racketeer. The only other, improbable, explanation given for the word is that it was originally the name of an ancient, crooked dice game. ...
Eric Partridge, A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, Fifth Edition (1961) corroborates Hendrickson's etymological analysis:
racket. A dodge, trick; plan; 'line', occupation, esp. if these are criminal or 'shady': ... Ex. racket, noise, disturbance. ...
John Hotten, A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant and Vulgar Words (1859) has this entry:
RACKET, a dodge, manœuver, exhibition ; a disturbance.
Francis Grose & Pierce Egan, Grose's Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1823) has this:
RACKET. Some particular kinds of fraud and robbery are so termed, when called by their flash [that is, cant] titles, and others, Rig ; as, the Letter-racket ; the Order-racket ; the Kid-rig ; the Cat & Kitten rig, &c. but all these terms depend on the fancy of the speaker. In fact, any game may be termed a rig, racket, suit, slum, &c. by prefixing thereto the particular branch of depredation or fraud in question, many examples of which occur in this work.
So the noun racket in its underworld sense has been around since the early 1800s (at least) and appears to have been inspired by the use of sudden noises by pickpockets or their confederates as a distraction just prior to a theft.
I know a lot of people get weird about it, but the Anarchist's Cookbook had TONS of info on phreaking and exploiting telephone systems. It wasn't just about how to make napalm and tennis ball bombs (but that shit was hella fun, too).
Do you want to keep up with the conversation or keep being an ad? They said they want to go back to just paying for things and I expounded on that to include going back to when we actually owned the things we paid for. Or do you like wasting money with literally nothing to show for it and no control over the things you pay for? Keep sucking that billionaire dick, though. Maybe someday they'll shoot a wad (of money) down your throat.
Not just pay for stuff, but actually own the stuff we pay for. All those albums and movies and video games that people pay hundreds of times their value by using a subscription service, can be revoked without warning or appeal. Having a CD or BluRaycollection isn't just about "showing off", it means you can listen to that music or watch that movie/show any time without the need of a connection or at the whim of some corporate overlord.
Ah, that must've been where I saw it. Yeah, I only used the web to sign up. Now I just use Jerboa. Thanks for the info. Imma go log in on the web real quick and kill some bots!
I highly recommend Inkulinati. It's still in Early Access, but I've enjoyed many hours of getting my ass kicked by a farting donkey and a Yoda wanna-be.
TurtlePower @ turtlepower @lemm.ee Posts 6Comments 404Joined 2 yr. ago
There is a law firm here named Bordas & Bordas. Every time I hear their radio ad, it sounds like they are saying "Bortus & Bortus" and I picture two Bortus-es (Borti?) arguing law and it just tickles my soul. I want so badly to photoshop one of their billboards...