STANG

When I got to class today, I wrote STANG on the board in big red letters and explained to the students that it is the new, exciting word for "money." I also explained, to universal bemusement, that Jonathan Winters had torn apart Arnold Stang's gas station in IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD. Toward the end of class, one young man asked of a fellow student, "Where's the Stang?" He did not mean money. He was, in fact, questioning the meat or purpose - the central kernel - of the short story under discussion. I applauded the effort, but deplored the sudden decay of the expression's proper usage so soon after its initiation.