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I’m going to have to watch me some UFO now!
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I cut on the TV today to be greeted with a comedy/crime noir movie from 1951 called Benny The Dip.
??? “They’re not allowed to imply ‘dipshit’ in a movie title back then. There must be an alternate meaning.” I scour the IMDb, Wiki, and TCM pages; no dice. Shoulda checked the dictionary:
-
informal a stupid or foolish person.
OK, that’s the polite way of saying “dipshit,” I guess. -
informal dated a pickpocket.
now we’re getting somewhere
Typing pickpocket dip into a search yielded some good info on pickpockets. In 2006, Vice contended that pickpocketing was alive and well in an interview with an NYPD pickpocket squad cop and an illustrated glossary of terms and techniques (if it seems short, scroll down; the illos are there but the photos are missing, leaving pages full of blank space)
But in 2011, Slate contended that pickpocketing had all but died out in the US for an interesting list of reasons.
So the good news (for North America) is that the pickpocketing infrastructure is rapidly going the way of the dodo. Still, it’s best to understand the techniques to be less of a mark for the hold-outs. (And both articles did mention that theft has gone away from more-cashless wallets with better-secured bank cards and toward ipods [2006] and phones [2011].) And with traditions still intact and easy travel to tourist destinations because of the EU, still gotta be careful in Europe, apparently.
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I can’t believe that they posted all of the following, unironically:
But even if Fagins abounded in the United States, it’s unclear whether today’s shrinking pool of criminally minded American kids would be willing to put in the time to properly develop the skill. “Pickpocketing is a subtle theft,” says Jay Albenese, a criminologist at Virginia Commonwealth University. “It requires a certain amount of skill, finesse, cleverness, and planning, and the patience to do all that isn’t there” among American young people. This is “a reflection of what’s going on in the wider culture,” Albenese says.
1973’s Harry in Your Pocket […] But there are hard times ahead. Society is changing. Harry’s aging partner Casey is losing his edge, misty with nostalgia for the old days. “There’s no sense of craft anymore,” he tells a promising young stall. “Nowadays youngsters haven’t got it, no patience, no discipline, they don’t want to spend the time to learn. So they … hit some poor old lady over the head and grab her purse. … It shouldn’t be allowed!”
Pickpocketing continued to flourish for two decades after Harry’s day, but extinctions take a long time. Even earlier, in 1960, Popular Science had older hooks already grousing that the next generation will be the one that finally casts the vaunted skill into disuse for good: “The old ones die off,” the writer explained, “and the newer generations lack the gumption and application it takes to learn the business.”
In 1960, someone remarks that pickpockets are dying off, because the younger generation is too lazy to learn.
In 1973, someone remarks that pickpockets are dying off, because the younger generation is too lazy to learn.
In 2011, someone remarks that pickpockets are dying off, because the younger generation is too lazy to learn.
And Slate’s reaction to the latest remark is “it’s unclear whether today’s shrinking pool of criminally minded American kids would be willing to put in the time to properly develop the skill.” Not, you know, “But then, older generations have been sneering at younger generations since at least the time of Plato, and here are two more examples, proven false, of someone else saying pickpocketing won’t lasting another generation because youngsters are lazy, so if it does die out, that’s probably not why.”
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Interesting quote in the article by an economist:
I think these skills have been tragically lost.
Good riddance?
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You know who’s still picking pockets? Magicians.
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Come to think of it, I caught a news item on a local tv network about a crew working the purses in shopping carts in the local supermarkets, just within the last month or so. Surveillance footage of the same 3 people working different stores.
But the overall trend is way down according to the stats in Slate.
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And when I say “interesting”…
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Skills like these become socially useful when the shit hits the fan. They’re a part of the working class defence system.
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A friend (who is working class, I guess you could call it – did house cleaning) went to Paris for a short trip, and almost immediately had his wallet stolen while gazing at the Mona Lisa. Kind of sad for them.
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Yup.
OTOH: the French Resistance, slave revolts, small-scale domestic subversion. What are the weapons of slaves and servants?
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I am wondering if this is a grifter’s misdirection. “Pickpocketing is on the wane. It’s sort of a shame, really, but I suppose people don’t have to watch their wallets so carefully… oops! Sorry to bump into you there, are you okay? I’m such a klutz!”
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I recall in 8th grade glancing over at a friend getting out of his neighboring desk and suddenly realizing that when one is engaged in the sort of twisting motion one uses to quickly and smoothly get out of a school desk, one is unlikely to notice your wallet being lifted out of your backpocket. And I was right! He didn’t notice until lunchtime. I volunteered to pay for his lunch, and then pulled out his wallet.
The previous year I figured out how to feel the tumblers in the cheap padlocks we were given for our lockers and how to modify retractable pens into dart pistols.
It is clear to me now that I have wasted my life…
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Non!
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That thread is fascinating. I’ve seen pictures of locomotive accidents over the years, but nothing like this.
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Just about everything posted by this Twitter account: @silentmoviegifs
Start here:
Lotsa nifty stuff on the history of film technique and special effects.
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