"Hundred dollars,” I said. “Iron men. Fish. Bucks to the number of one hundred.”
from “Farewell, My Lovely” by Raymond Chandler
does this mean “fish” is [or was] slang for US$?
anyway, it’s your fish-of-the-day,
answers on a postcard please …
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I've read the book, but must have skipped over that line without thinking about it. If it ever was a slang for dollars, it sure isn't used now.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's just Chandler being Chandler. It's about half-way through the book, shortly before his vicious (and not-very-subtle) attack on Hemningway:
ReplyDelete[a policeman has the habit of repeating what people say to him, so Marlowe nicknames him Hemingway]
"Who is this Hemingway person at all?" [the policeman asks]
"A guy that keeps saying the same thing over and over until you begin to believe it must be good."