CancelReport This Post

Please fill out the form below with your name, e-mail address and the reason(s) you wish to report this post.

 

Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

gwladysstreet

22nd February 2016, 13:29
"Disaffected 50s youth laid into family in recession" (7). Answer: Beatnik.
My first thought was of the dear old Teddy Boys, and tried to work out how to fit some form of "Ted" with "kin." But "Beatnik"? A term coined in 1958, in the US, and hardly referring to youth? Wrong and sloppy in my book.
1 of 15  -   Report This Post

chrisg

22nd February 2016, 13:39
Laid into = beat + kin reversed.
One dictionary seems to support the explanation of disaffected 50's youth
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/beatnik
2 of 15  -   Report This Post

gwladysstreet

23rd February 2016, 11:27
Dear chrisg, Thank you for the reference but, with due respect to Merriam-Webster, I think their definition is an afterthought. The trouble with being of a certain vintage (or with being an old fart if you like) is that you remember some things very clearly.
To us jazzers in the late 50s, and early 60s the Beats, or Beatniks were old men - that is chaps in their middle to late 20s or even older- who were in to poetry by the likes of Allen Ginsberg, and Lawrence Ferlenghetti (still with us!), and Zen, wore black polo necks and dark glasses and bummed cigarettes off you.
The polo necks and glasses could be confusing: in my local jazz club I once began a conversation with one of these "old men" by saying, "You beatniks - " he held up a hand and said "Whoa man! I'm a hipster."
My reference is the Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang Vol 1, edited by J.E. Lighter. This attributes the suffix "nik" to the influence of the Sputnik which was launched in 1957, although Yiddish speakers would claim its origin is Slavic.
As for myself, I'm an onthefencenik, and, as you probably now think, chrisg, I am a nudnik too.


3 of 15  -   Report This Post

chrisg

23rd February 2016, 11:36
Don't know what happened there...I just typed a response but it has disappeared.
4 of 15  -   Report This Post

jazzgirl

23rd February 2016, 12:30
I remember "El Cabala", a coffee bar in Bournemouth which was a lively but respectable place for the jazz set . My friends and I enjoyed evenings there, listening to the likes of Humph and Chris Barber. Then, there was a change in the atmosphere when so-called Beatniks started going there, playing bongos, reading poetry and smoking "I don't know what" (probably marijuana). So we stopped going there. The ages of the beatniks would be around late 20's /30's as I remember.
The local hotel association, along with the council, tried to ban "beatniks" from visiting the town, as they were sleeping on the beach and under the pier at night. This was before the "hippies" and "flower people".
5 of 15  -   Report This Post

chrise

23rd February 2016, 12:36
The mods and the rockers came in between the beatniks and the hippies and flower people, I think, jazzy!
6 of 15  -   Report This Post

jazzgirl

23rd February 2016, 12:41
Yes, you're right Chris.
The mods and rockers used to create chaos along the seafront
7 of 15  -   Report This Post

jazzgirl

23rd February 2016, 12:43
...1964 !
8 of 15  -   Report This Post

bernie

23rd February 2016, 12:51
Moderators? ;-)
9 of 15  -   Report This Post

chrise

23rd February 2016, 12:55
Hi bernie
Have you been away? I don't think I've seen your name for a while.
10 of 15  -   Report This Post