[extropy-chat] all quiet on the extrope front

[BillK]

On 1/25/07, spike wrote:
>
> OK, a few seconds with google cleared up this otherwise baffling comment:
>
> Jonesin: A word used to describe an intense craving for a drug. Comes from
> Great Jones Street in New York City, between Broadway and Lafayette Street,
> a former junkie hangout.  ex. "I'm jonesin' for some coke."
>
> The impact of the internet is difficult to adequately describe.  The
> futurists generally missed it, even when it was nearly upon us.  They were
> still talking about flying cars and cities under the sea, when this quiet
> development of universal frictionless communication slipped under the radar
> and changed our lives as we know it.  We have a world of knowledge at our
> fingertips.  We know about everything that happens everywhere on this globe.
> We have access to the ultra-obscure realms of knowledge, the above given as
> a trivial example.  Twenty years ago, I would have no idea what one was
> doing when jonesin for a fix; I would know exactly *no one* likely to have
> the vaguest clue what is meant by that curious bit of slang.  Back in those
> dark days we went around not knowing stuff.  The profound satisfaction of
> knowing stuff is the greatest transcendent ecstasy of our times.
>

Of course, being a jones yourself, you need to know these things. :)

The Urban Dictionary reference you quote is *nearly* correct, but not quite.

Great Jones Street
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Jones_Street>

<http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/17/nyregion/17FYI.html?ex=1169874000&en=9fa4907b3209a3df&ei=5070>

The Great Jones   By ED BOLAND Jr.

Q. East Third Street becomes Great Jones Street between Broadway and
the Bowery. Who was Jones and what was so great about him?

A. Jones is Samuel Jones, a lawyer sometimes called Father of the New
York Bar. He owned the land on which Great Jones Street now runs and
bequeathed the property to the city with the caveat that any street
that ran through the land be named for him.

In 1789 a street was opened there, but New York already had a Jones
Street in Greenwich Village. So the new street was named Great Jones
Street because it was wider than the norm.

In his desire to be remembered, Jones may have linked himself with a
different aspect of the city's culture. The slang term "jones,"
meaning an addiction to drugs, is said to have originated among
addicts who lived in Great Jones Alley, off Great Jones Street,
between Broadway and Lafayette Street.

-----------------------

So, it was Great Jones Alley that originated the 'jonesin' usage.


Here's a picture of it (scroll about halfway down)
<http://www.forgotten-ny.com/Alleys/Soho/soho.html>


BillK