52 Comments
User's avatar
David Perlmutter's avatar

The most obvious for me is Kleenex, a brand name universally used in place of the name of the product it is, facial tissues.

Expand full comment
Andrew Smith's avatar

Good one. How universal is Kleenex? It's obviously ubiquitious in the US and Canada... is it so in, say, Brazil?

Expand full comment
Punditman's avatar

This one is well known especially to Canadians, though invented by an American: Zamboni, a genericized name for ice resurfacing machines.

Expand full comment
Andrew Smith's avatar

Zamboni! Great example, and what a fantastic word.

Expand full comment
Rudy Fischmann's avatar

Spending my teen years in Indiana, all sodas, including sprite and 7-Up, were called Coke. So yeah, people would go into a diner and order a Coke only to be asked “what kind?” and then would possibly respond with “Mountain Dew”.

Expand full comment
Andrew Smith's avatar

This was common in the south too, but you could also ask for "soda" or "cola" and people would know what you meant.

Don't say "pop", though!

Expand full comment
Rudy Fischmann's avatar

For me, you could say cola but you’d still get some funny looks.

Expand full comment
Andrew Smith's avatar

I know we've talked about regional generic sodas, but did we discuss IBC root beer?

Expand full comment
Rudy Fischmann's avatar

I think so. The one I’m chasing is RC Draft. I think it’s not made anymore and I only had it once. But I remember it being soooooo good.

Expand full comment
Andrew Smith's avatar

Are Shasta and Fanta in the RC type classification?

Expand full comment
Collette Greystone's avatar

How about frisbee and scotch tape?

Expand full comment
Andrew Smith's avatar

Yes to both! Frisbee especially, but Scotch tape reminds me of another good one: Post-It notes!

Expand full comment
Collette Greystone's avatar

Post-it notes are one of my favorite things. Once you get over 50 CRS kicks in. (Can’t Remember Shit)

Expand full comment
Andrew Smith's avatar

I've been choked a lot and hit on the head, so I might have arrived at CRS City a bit early!

Expand full comment
Daniel Nest's avatar

Can't think of any, but I'm sure I can Yahoo it for you, as all the cool kids do these days!

Expand full comment
Andrew Smith's avatar

Remember the one-word jingle they had? Yah-HOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Expand full comment
Daniel Nest's avatar

Wait, I thought that was Goofy's!

Expand full comment
Andrew Smith's avatar

Goofy was, by far, my favorite Disney character.

Expand full comment
Daniel Nest's avatar

I loved his "sports" series!

Expand full comment
j.e. moyer, LPC's avatar

Not used much anymore. Xerox. To Xerox (ZEE-rocks) something was to make a paper copy from a copy machine. Do people still Xerox?

Expand full comment
Andrew Smith's avatar

Yeah, here is what I wrote about this word: "Xerox as a verb was around for a very long time, having even more staying power than the term Walkman during the 80s. “Hang on, I’ll Xerox that” was much more common than “I’ll make you a photocopy of that.” Like the Walkman, it wasn’t replaced by a better version of itself, but instead by a different type of technology; today, people just copy things with their ubiquitous smartphones or with scanners. We do things more with ones and zeroes than we do with paper or physical media these days."

Expand full comment
Marginal Gains's avatar

It made me wonder how long before googling becomes chatgpting (or something ai specific for search).

Expand full comment
Andrew Smith's avatar

It might remain Google, if Alphabet plays their cards right! It's very uncertain at the moment.

Expand full comment
Marginal Gains's avatar

Google search has degraded significantly in the last few years (perplexity.ai seems to be a better tool), and Google search with AI is telling people to use glue to stick the cheese to the pizza. And today, I saw we can even defy gravity if we do not look down while jumping from a cliff and keep running.

Growing pain or hallucination is hard to overcome with the current approach? I believe the large amount of quality data and compute are critical. However, we lack a large amount of quality data. Still, somewhere, the thought process is that if we keep increasing the compute, even with bad quality data, some form of AGI will come, but only time will tell.

Expand full comment
David Perlmutter's avatar

Very possibly.

Expand full comment
vince newton's avatar

Yes! I definitely taped some shows with VHS when I wasn’t home. But it took a while to figure it out!

Expand full comment
Brad Kyle's avatar

Not all that general, I'm guessing, although it could've been....we're talking '50s and '60s here! I was 10 in 1965, and growing up, I only ever heard my dad (the one with the 20,000 LPs and 78s, mostly jazz) refer to his stereo/phonograph as "the vic." I don't think he even owned an RCA Victor Victrola, but I grew up thinking those machines that played LPs and 45s were vics! As in, "Son, did you turn off the vic?"

So, if that managed to make it outside the door of 5231 Beechnut St. in Houston, I wouldn't be all that surprised ('cause at that point, it would be like calling any soda pop a "Coke"), because RCA was a leading "vic" producer back in the day!

Expand full comment
Andrew Smith's avatar

My folks grew up calling their parents' generation of record players "Edisons." I wonder if it's a regional thing!

Expand full comment
Brad Kyle's avatar

That's funny......I bet regionalism is part of it, as well as which brand of a new innovation someone grew up in or grew into.

Expand full comment
Monica's avatar

In many areas of SouthAmerica Kolynos is syonymous for toothpaste.

And in most of SouthAmerica we dont have refigerators (refrigeradores) but a made up word "frigideres" (from Frigidaire), the words are very similar and most people dont know they regularly or exclusively use a word which is not in the Spanish dictionary!

Expand full comment
Andrew Smith's avatar

I've heard "Frigideres" many times! Looks like Colgate owns Kolynos now, which makes sense.

Expand full comment
WhyNotThink's avatar

Unbelievable, but in Thailand they say "tupperware" for any plastic container for leftover food in the fridg. Mr. Tupper must have traveled the world. There are also 1,000's of 7/11's instead of convenience stores.

Expand full comment
Monica's avatar

Mmm.... I am from Peru and not sure how to call leftover food containers. They are tuppers.... "tapers" in spanish

Expand full comment
Andrew Smith's avatar

I'm thinking about the old concept of the "Tupperware party", and now I'm wondering if there was maybe an international diplomacy component I missed within the pyramid scheme!

Expand full comment
vince newton's avatar

Hi Andrew. Even today, i play music with friends, and some of the older dudes will ask me if i "taped" the song we just played. Like you, Andrew, i used to make cassette and even 8 track variety tapes. Music recording went digital in the late 80s, and my variety tapes became variety cds. And still, my wife will ask me if i taped the Jeopardy Championships. :-)

Expand full comment
Andrew Smith's avatar

Vince, do you remember trying to set a time for something to record while you were away? That was revolutionary for me, but also very complicated.

Expand full comment
vince newton's avatar

Yes I remember the horrible time it took to figure the VHS timing system out!

Expand full comment
Louise Haynes's avatar

In Japan, they say “hotchkiss” for a stapler because it was the name of the company that produced them way back, sort of like Xerox (and instead of “a photocopy/handout” it’s “Professor, can I have a print?”).

Expand full comment
Andrew Smith's avatar

Apparently, Hotchkiss goes way back. Wonder why it never took in the US!

Expand full comment
Rudy Fischmann's avatar

I’d say yes if you’re speaking to being less high profile but still relatively successful commercially. I like regular RC but RC Draft was a special product that came in 4-packs. Marketed as artisan soda.

Expand full comment
Andrew Smith's avatar

What about Nehi? Did they have some fancy stuff too? I forgot about them until just now.

Expand full comment
Whitney's avatar

Radar on M*A*S*H drank grape Nehi.

Expand full comment
Andrew Smith's avatar

Oh wow, you're right! Great show, too.

Expand full comment
Whitney's avatar

One of the best shows ever made! We rewatch it about once a year.

Expand full comment
Rudy Fischmann's avatar

Never had it but hope to someday.

Expand full comment
Andrew Smith's avatar

We should never be afraid to dream big. Diet Cheerwine, I'm looking at you.

Expand full comment
Sum@sumdifference01's avatar

Being that we all are shackled to our smartphones, one thing I hear is , “Let me get my cell…”

Expand full comment
Andrew Smith's avatar

But no one particular brand name, right?

Expand full comment
Sum@sumdifference01's avatar

Yes, they can all be cells…

Expand full comment