Dude: why this obsession with Mad Men? So you can play "Anachronism Gotcha!"? Well, you pushed my buttons with an non-anachronistic (and, in fact, all too common) blunder in reporting the story. You, a person at least partly responsible for Lexicon Valley, said "The reason . . . is because . . . ." That is wrong, man. Listen to the "tape." Do you even read these comments? Have you made your on air mea culpa? Maybe I missed it.

Along with the anachronisms, I would have liked to hear the "correct" idioms for the time.

I've not had the time to watch MAD MEN, which is a pity because those who know me well say it's my kind of show. (I'm a nostalgic Boomer.)

The series is so popular though, and featured with such regularity in the entertainment press, that I am immersed in the premise and culture of the show to the point where I feel that I can speak to it with at least casual authority.

I was a big fan of NBC's erstwhile AMERICAN DREAMS series (despite a few poor scripts that were probably ultimately the series' undoing) for probably the same reasons I would love MAD MEN.

And, like MAD MEN, AMERICAN DREAMS was hardly blooper-free. It occasionally referenced post-'60s means of self-expression.

Of course, one could argue that TV series filmed in the '60s and set in that era didn't reflect what was going on in the lives of those who saw those shows in first run. Take the sitcom MY THREE SONS: None of the "sons" went to Viet Nam, burned a draft card or smoked pot. And though "Chip Douglas" (Stanley Livingston)had a favorite (scripted) expression, "clunky" was never common parlance in teen circles, before, during, or after that time.

Stacy Harris
Publisher/Executive Editor/Media Critic
Stacy's Music Row Report
http://stacyharris.com

Very interesting that you segued from a discussion of whether it is correct to use a third person singular or plural verb when the subject team name is a mass noun to Mike Vuolo saying "the data shows." Sorry, guys, "data" is the plural of "datum." Since a single element of data is an anecdote, "datum" is not a word used much in discussing any kind of scientific findings.

In 1966, I was six years old. I remember being checked into the hospital. While the nurse was talking on the phone, I tried to get her attention, and my sister said, "Shush! She's on the line!"
I remember thinking what a strange idiom that was. She wasn't "on the line", but on the phone, I thought. I can easily date that memory because it was, to this day, the last time I spent a night in a hospital.
Today I heard the comment that the phrase "on the line" is anachronistic when they say it on "Mad Men". I can't vouch for any year BEFORE 1966, but it definitely was not unknown during that year.