On: _why is no more

[aslakhellesoy]

A few years back I read Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead. Somewhere in the middle of the book someone says "why the lucky stiff!"

Does anyone know what that means?

[anigbrowl → aslakhellesoy]

'stiff' is 30s slang for a working class person (as in 'working stiff'). This would be like saying 'he really lucked out!' today - a mixture of admiration and mild jealousy for someone's (possibly unearned) good fortune.

[tcoffeep → aslakhellesoy]

I read about that on Wikipedia. I've never read the book, though. There's just something about text and paper that doesn't agree with my stomach.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Why_the_lucky_stiff#Real_n...

[lambdajones → aslakhellesoy]

it means why is probably in a remote, hidden mountain village in Colorado.

[timinman → aslakhellesoy]

I'm pretty sure stiff is slang for dead person, but it gets used more generally than that, for example: 'working stiff', a working person nothing going for him.