If Youre Between 3. I Bet You Learned The Word Ajar From A Car. I should be clear here that Im not an official expert in words Im no entomologist. You can tell thats true because I just typed the word for someone who studies insects, not etymologist, someone who studies words. But this hasnt stopped me from formulating a theory that theres a large number of people who learned the word ajar from a talking car. Heres my theory the word ajar is a fairly uncommon word. Most people tend to call a door thats not closed, whether its slightly not closed or flung wide, just open. For some reason that I havent been able to determine, Chrysler chose the word ajar to be used to describe the status of non closed doors when picking the phrases for their Electronic Voice Alert EVA system, launched on 1. Allen Greer superchief37yahoo. Bakersfield, CA 65 Corsa turbo convertible My dad gave me the Vair bug when I was a teenager and have had many over the years. Reviews, essays, books and the arts the leading international weekly for literary culture. Graduates From Laurelton In The 60s Aaronson, Ron ronaaoptonline. Andrew Jackson H. S. Class of 1967 Currently residing in Armonk, NY. SUTTON SEARCHERS Sutton family estate information from Elgin county Ontario. The Hollywood Reporter is your source for breaking news about Hollywood and entertainment, including movies, TV, reviews and industry blogs. Charlie Pierce on all this ESPN nonsense and newspapering and what not is so fantastic and Im bitter we didnt run it. Go check it out. SI. The EVA system was based on a Texas Instruments TMC0. Speak n Spell toys. Chrysler stuck these speech synthesis modules in a whole crapload of their higher end K Car based cars like New Yorkers and Le. Falling For My Best Friend`S Brother By J.S. Cooper' title='Falling For My Best Friend`S Brother By J.S. Cooper' />Barons and Daytonas and Lasers. These cars were fairly common when I was a kid, and I think, thanks to carpooling, rides in friends parents cars, and things like Boy Scouts and the occasional abduction, almost every kid I knew ended up in somebodys speech enabled Chrysler at some point, and once in those cars, they heard the car say a door is ajar. I learned the word ajar from a talking Chrysler. I know many of my friends did as well. I believe that a significant number of people heard the word ajar for the first time around 1. I suspect the word had a notable increase in popularity from that point, all thanks to these talking cars. I reached out to several University English departments to try and get some confirmation. Shockingly, none has gotten back to me. I was able to find at least one graph charting the word ajar and its use and popularity via Google This chart shows the popularity of ajar in books from 1. As you can see, the word was in a pretty consistent decline, bottoming out around 1. It started to creep up after that, and after 1. I firmly believe that the sustained increase post 1. That_Night_With_My_Boss-1-640x1024.jpg' alt='Falling For My Best Friend`S Brother By J.S. Cooper' title='Falling For My Best Friend`S Brother By J.S. Cooper' />I havent been able to find any record of the spoken use of ajar, because Im pretty sure no such record exists. Downloading Mobile Application And Games more. I bet, though, there would be a huge spike in the early 8. When is a door not a door When its ajar caused dorky kids in the back seat of Le. Barons to eject laughter milk out of their nostrils. With the absence of hard data, Id at least like to reach out to you, the worlds finest, most sensual audience of automotive enthusiasts, to see if theres a significant number of you who learned the word ajar from a motor vehicle. As an aside, in case youre wondering why more modern cars dont speak to us anymore, reminding us to de ajar our doors and that they crave oil so badly, I think the answer can be found here, in this anecdote from Burton Bouwkamp, Director of Chryslers Body Engineering department back in the early 8. I told Dick Rossio Executive Engineer of Body Electrical that the voice alert was getting on my wifes and my nerves and I asked him how to turn it off. Dick said there was no way to cut a wire without making the car illegal for some of the Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. Story Listing A Z. Alphabetical Order by Title with Author Name For multipart stories, link points to first part. Number of parts is in parentheses. Archives and past articles from the Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News, and Philly. HsxjA/x360-9YI.jpg' alt='Falling For My Best Friend`S Brother By J.S. Cooper' title='Falling For My Best Friend`S Brother By J.S. Cooper' />I told Dick to find a way. Consequently, after the first 1. EVA feature, wiring changes were made and a switch was added behind forward of the glove box so an agile owner or a dealer mechanic could turn it off. So, theres the answer even the people who ran the company soon found the talking annoying. Ill leave the comments ajar here so you can tell me where you learned the word.