Page "Al Capp" Paragraph 77

Sadie Hawkins Day and double whammy are two terms attributed to Al Capp that have entered the English language.

Other, less ubiquitous Cappisms include skunk works and Lower Slobbovia.

The term shmoo has also entered the lexicon, defining highly technical concepts in no less than four separate fields of science, including the variations shmooing ( a microbiological term for the " budding " process in yeast reproduction ), and shmoo plot ( a technical term in the field of electrical engineering ).

In socioeconomics, a " shmoo " refers to any generic kind of good that reproduces itself, ( as opposed to " widgets " which require resources and active production.

) In the field of particle physics, " shmoo " refers to a high energy survey instrument, as utilized at the Los Alamos National Laboratory to capture subatomic cosmic ray particles emitted from the Cygnus X-3 constellation.

Capp also had a knack for popularizing certain uncommon terms, such as druthers, schmooze and nogoodnik, neatnik, etc.

In his book The American Language, H. L.

Mencken credits the postwar mania for adding "- nik " to the ends of adjectives to create nouns as beginning — not with beatnik or Sputnik — but earlier, in the pages of Li ' l Abner.