“What’s new in the dictionary” stories have been a newspaper staple for many years. Today, you’ll find them in abridged form in the Star Tribune’s “Have Your Heard” feature on page one. I spotted this one — 50 years old this week — on the front page of the Minneapolis Star. What’s with the reporter’s attitude about “rock ’n’ roll”? And why did “ploy” – which dates to the 15th century — take so long to be added to the dictionary?

DICTIONARY
GOES ON
THE ROCKS

NEW YORK – (UPI) – They must have shuddered when they did it. But they couldn’t hold out any longer. “Rock ’n’ roll” had to go in the dictionary.

The phrase has jumped into the latest edition of “The American College Dictionary” along with other newcomers such as jet stream, space station, tweeter-woofer, whirlybird, hard sell, ploy, mach, binaural broadcasting, clean (as in bombs), and screwdriver (as in cocktails).

An ad in the Minneapolis Tribune promised the dream of home ownership for just $3.50 a month — including life insurance.

For fun, try diagraming the sentence in the top right corner of the ad. But don’t hurt yourself!

Without major league sports or even a decent shopping mall, entertainment options were somewhat limited in these parts in 1915. Twin City Lines, which ran the streetcars, used this three-column ad in the Minneapolis Morning Tribune to drum up interest in trips to the “wonderful” new state prison outside Stillwater. The ad includes only fares and directions — no details on what the public might see during an “inspection” of the prison. Concertina wire? Gun-toting guards? Famous felons?