Oscar: discussion.

[Magmar]

Amid all the spam, I'm posting something equally useless but this is driving my nonna and I up the WALL and I really need to know!!

Does anyone else here do this, or EVER hear, of someone calling a recycling bin an Oscar?? Because everyone in my family calls it an Oscar, but I can find no record online of them ever being referred to as Oscars! I have no idea where this came from; I'm guessing Sesame Street. But it's driving me crazy!

So it's not really a poll; more like, does anyone have any idea where this nomenclature for a recycling bin has come from??

Edit: I FINALLY figured it out... after much indepth research. The Ocean State Cleanup and Recycling (OSCAR) program was big in the late '80s and early '90s and took off in specific areas of Rhode Island, particularly Smithfield where I live, and Johnston. Only our recycling bins were imprinted with the OSCAR emblem. So this is why only very select people from specific areas would ever get the idea of calling a recycling bin an Oscar!

But really, did anyone else here ever grow up calling the recycling bins Oscars? I guess the thread is kinda useless now. Mods, do as you will, since I figured it out ^_^;

[Drago]

Dammit Maggy, you can't post a question and then answer it yourself six minutes later!! Even if you knew, allow us to wallow in suspense for just a bit!

Anyhow, I like the concept of calling bins Oscars, but seeing how bins around Aus aren't metallic, or even green any more, it seems fairly wrong to name it as I would after the lovable grouch. Recycling bins are black plastic with a yellow lid. The only thing I'm instantly reminded of is Bumblebee Ness, but that's far too random a name for any recycling bin.

As a side note, full of irrelevance: Walking home from work at 4 am sucks. It gets cold at 4 am.

[MToolen]

The bins around here are usually blue. I've never heard of oscars but that's very original. They must've had an ace of an advertiser.

[Jeff]

I would have thought it was just something that your family does. Since Oscar the Grouch lives in a trash can, it seems natural that someone would start calling any waste disposal unit an "Oscar" and the rest of the family would pick up on that. That was my first theory anyway when I started reading your post. On a related note, my cousin used to refer to clowns as "homies" because of Homie the Clown (not sure what show he was on, I think it was In Living Color).

[Little_Pikachu]

Seems a shame to close this when we can just manipulate it.
This topic is now about: Things you have weird alternate names for and do you know why they have these names?

But please, no one cares about nicknames you've given to your genetalia.

[Zak]

At first I thought this topic was about the Oscars...

anyway I have never heard that before, but I actually remember some weird random names I used to call things.

[Crystal Mew]

I never heard of them being called Oscars, then again my family never recycled. lol


And we call tv/dvd remotes "switchers" I guess cause it switches the channel to something else :B and we (and when I say we, I mean my siblings and I) just called it that when we were little and it just stuck.

I've heard people call them changers, clicker, channel changer,... those all seem weird to me though, ha

[firepokemon]

Well think about what people call vacumning. I mean some say I hoovered the carpet, some say lux and I'm sure there are other brands of vacumn cleaners that could equally be applied here.

As for oscar in regards to recycling bins, that's kinda lol.

[MToolen]

There is currently in the U.S. a battle for what to call carbonated beverages. Where I am, it's soda. North and east, it's called pop; further south, no matter what the brand, it's called Coke. Actually, there's a website with pretty graphics for this kind of thing.

[Jeff]

Cool maps. They seem to be pretty consistent with what I've noticed, most people around here call it "soda", with "coke" being the second most popular name. As for the TV remote, my dad calls it the "button", not sure where that comes from. Either it's a south-central Pennsylvania thing or it it's just something he's called it since he was little.

Edit: Here's another one: Jimmies vs. Sprinkles. My sister used to work at a Dairy Queen and during the summer she said that some tourists would ask for "jimmies" on their ice cream, and she had no clue what they were talking about. We've always called them sprinkles, and I can't say that I've ever heard anyone call them jimmies before.

[Crystal Mew]

Ohhh yeah. People around here call ALL soda "coke" no matter what it is, if its a sprite, its really coke. lol

[kalad1]

we call it "Soda pop" on purpose, combining terms.

[Little_Pikachu]

About brand names taking over the actual product name, I can't think of any time someone has wanted correction fluid and actually asked for such, it's always "Do you have any Tippex?" even though there are many varieties of correction fluid. I am very guilty of calling the vacuum cleaner a 'hoover' even though mine is clearly a Dyson.

I think most of us will admit when we want a cola we wil comfortably ask for a Coke unless maybe the Pepsi logo is in clear view. I cannot get my head around people who ask for a 'coke' in place of any carbonated beverage. If you said that here you would be given a glass of Coke or similar cola beverage, no questions asked, if you complained and said "actually I wanted a lemonade" you would be told to shut the fuck up and to say what you actually wanted in future.

[firepokemon]

Its funny but I never hear Pop, or soda well ok I'll hear soda occasionally. And as for Coke being used, yeah we get that often here. But mostly its fizzy drinks or more bizarrely soft drinks.

[Crystal Mew]

About brand names taking over the actual product name, I can't think of any time someone has wanted correction fluid and actually asked for such, it's always "Do you have any Tippex?" even though there are many varieties of correction fluid. I am very guilty of calling the vacuum cleaner a 'hoover' even though mine is clearly a Dyson.

I think most of us will admit when we want a cola we wil comfortably ask for a Coke unless maybe the Pepsi logo is in clear view. I cannot get my head around people who ask for a 'coke' in place of any carbonated beverage. If you said that here you would be given a glass of Coke or similar cola beverage, no questions asked, if you complained and said "actually I wanted a lemonade" you would be told to shut the fuck up and to say what you actually wanted in future.

Well, if people use the term "coke" its just a general name for ALL sodas, but if you wanted a sprite, no one says "can I have a coke" expecting a sprite, of course you ask for a sprite....its just what some people group soda in, when referring to all carbonated drinks.

I stopped drinking 'coke' (all sodas) with my family about 4 years ago, and we never hesitate to tell our friends that "coke kills" lol

[Zak]

About brand names taking over the actual product name, I can't think of any time someone has wanted correction fluid and actually asked for such, it's always "Do you have any Tippex?" even though there are many varieties of correction fluid. I am very guilty of calling the vacuum cleaner a 'hoover' even though mine is clearly a Dyson.

"Correction fluid"? You mean, "white-out" is an American-only term? Interesting...

I can think of another brand-name example. In Israel, cellphones are commonly referred to as "Pelephone" (translates to "wonder-phone") even though that's not really the word for it, but just one of the three main phone-networks there, where it's actually a different word for it that translates to "cellular phone". Even if they use one of the other two services like Orange or Cellcom they call it a "Pelephone". No one uses the actual word.

[Magmar]

Weird things I say because I'm ghetto:

Remote controls --> Clickers
Any bird --> Pigeons
*White Bird --> Albino Toucan
Telephone poles --> Logs
Something sucky --> Boot/Price Rite/Save-a-Lot/Dollar Tree
Something that smells awful --> Jersey
Wine --> The Franz
Head --> Dome
Forehead --> Dome Piece
Computer --> Machine
A bad car --> A piece
Eggplant --> Purple squash
Any convenience store --> Wawa, lol

[Heald]

Speaking of bins, apparently us Brits are now going to be taxed for the amount of rubbish we throw away, except they are not going to lower the tax they already take off us for the privilege of having our bins emptied anyway. So, we're effectively being taxed twice for the same shitty service.

Anyway, things I call strange names:

phone --> blower
pub --> nuclear sub
beer --> beverage (pronoucing the -age as -aj e.g. as in Raj or Taj)
toilet --> Kidderminster (the biggest shithole in the world)
ale --> heavy
Amy Winehouse --> stupid talentless overrated whore who I hope dies horribly

I can't think of any more, but I'll watch my slang today and see what comes out.

[Jeff]

Some other brand names I can think of off the top of my head: "Kleenex" for tissues, "Googling" for Internet searching, and "WiteOut" (usually written as "white out") for, well, white out.

Also, keeping with the waste bin theme, "Dumpster" used to be a brand name apparently. Another company must have used it, not realizing it was trademarked, then the Dumpster company sued and lost both the suit and trademark due to that fact that "dumpster" had become a generic word. I heard there were fears of the the same thing happening to Coca-Cola, which is why cola is now the generic word for any Coke-like drink.

[mr_pikachu]

Some other brand names I can think of off the top of my head: "Kleenex" for tissues, "Googling" for Internet searching, and "WiteOut" (usually written as "white out") for, well, white out.

Also, keeping with the waste bin theme, "Dumpster" used to be a brand name apparently. Another company must have used it, not realizing it was trademarked, then the Dumpster company sued and lost both the suit and trademark due to that fact that "dumpster" had become a generic word. I heard there were fears of the the same thing happening to Coca-Cola, which is why cola is now the generic word for any Coke-like drink.

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned "Xerox." Seriously, when was the last time you heard someone say "Photocopy this for me"?

But please, no one cares about nicknames you've given to your genetalia.

Aww....

[Asilynne]

Wow Ive been working too much cause when I saw the title of this thread I automatically thought of this:

[Drago]

Personally, I was expecting some horrifying revelation that Oscar the grouch would no longer live in a garbage can for hygiene purposes as well as no longer being a detrimental reference to the homeless.
...After all, they already hit the Cookie Monster with that 'sometimes snack' crap...