_why is no more

Re:_why is no more by aslakhellesoy on Wednesday August 19, 2009 @08:01PM (#774124)

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?

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Re:_why is no more by anigbrowl on Wednesday August 19, 2009 @11:37PM (#774374)

'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.

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Re:_why is no more by tcoffeep on Wednesday August 19, 2009 @08:07PM (#774141)

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...

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Re:_why is no more by lambdajones on Wednesday August 19, 2009 @09:28PM (#774228)

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

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Re:_why is no more by timinman on Thursday August 20, 2009 @12:09PM (#775347)

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.

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