| Hi
AC,
Just a quick question for you-- actually there are 2 questions. First,
is the term " gaslight" in use? I reorganized our kitchen this
weekend and my husband said something to the effect of "you are trying
to gaslight me... the kitchen table keeps moving" (I had been playing
around with the position of the kitchen table.) Gaslight means annoyance??
The other one was " sell the sizzle and not the steak". I'm
not sure how he used it-- I just remember at some point asking myself
" Where does this come from?"
Lorna
Dear Lorna,
Although "sell the sizzle and not the steak" was originated
by legendary salesman and motivational speaker Elmer Wheeler way back
in the 1930s, it's still in use in sales and advertising circles. The
expression refers to the importance of marketing excitement for a product
instead of the product itself. For example, "Mazda has four-wheel
drive" is steak. "Zoom-zoom" is sizzle.
As for your other question, to gaslight someone is to drive them crazy
by intentionally confusing them. It comes from the 1944 movie Gaslight,
in which sweet heiress Ingrid Bergman marries creepy Charles Boyer, who
hopes to get her inheritance by driving her insane. He convinces her she's
seeing and hearing things that don't exist, including the gaslights (what
they had before light bulbs) going on and off when he isn't home.
"Gaslighting" is still in use, but it's not very common. It's
most famous appearance in recent years is probably in the song "Gaslighting
Abbie" (2000) by Steely Dan, which describes gaslighting as a "a
luscious invention for three, one summer by the sea." Their explanation
of how to gaslight someone is as follows:
...we'll
do a fright night
With blood and everything
Some punky laughter from the kitchen
And then - a nice relaxing hand of solitaire
Note to self:
do not take a summer vacation with members of Steely Dan. Anyway, I hope
you aren't really trying to gaslight your husband (unless he has a large
inheritance, in which case - good luck!)
Your pal,
A.C. Kemp
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