"Dumpster Fire" citations? Radar Secret Service band connection?
March 8, 2018 11:39 AM Subscribe
Looking for pre-2008 metaphorical uses of the phrase "Dumpster Fire". Also looking for lyrics to the song "Dumpster Fire" by Radar Secret Service.
Hello! Inspired the recent Merriam-Webster inclusion (and, more directly, by a request from my boss, who studies metaphor) I'm trying to track down early metaphorical uses of the phrase "dumpster fire". I'm primarily looking for the sense of, "a catastrophic situation", but would love to see any metaphoric use. The earliest I've been able to find is the Urban Dictionary entry, from July 10, 2008.
In my searches I came across a review of the 2002 album "Stop Communication" by Radar Secret Service, and one of the tracks is called "Dumpster Fire". I'm extremely curious to know whether they wrote a song about a literal fire, but I can't find the song or the lyrics online (I've contacted one of the band members on Facebook, but had no reply yet).
Hello! Inspired the recent Merriam-Webster inclusion (and, more directly, by a request from my boss, who studies metaphor) I'm trying to track down early metaphorical uses of the phrase "dumpster fire". I'm primarily looking for the sense of, "a catastrophic situation", but would love to see any metaphoric use. The earliest I've been able to find is the Urban Dictionary entry, from July 10, 2008.
In my searches I came across a review of the 2002 album "Stop Communication" by Radar Secret Service, and one of the tracks is called "Dumpster Fire". I'm extremely curious to know whether they wrote a song about a literal fire, but I can't find the song or the lyrics online (I've contacted one of the band members on Facebook, but had no reply yet).
Google Trends has 8 searches in October 2004 for "dumpster fire."
Like as not, though, someone was probably searching for info on an actual conflagration in a waste receptacle.
posted by Sunburnt at 11:50 AM on March 8, 2018
Like as not, though, someone was probably searching for info on an actual conflagration in a waste receptacle.
posted by Sunburnt at 11:50 AM on March 8, 2018
Best answer: In 2002, the Mountain Goats released ‘Old College Try’ with the lyric, ‘like a trash can fire in a prison cell, like the search lights in the parking lots of hell, ...’
So not a dumpster, but a trash can fire used in metaphor.
posted by Doc_Sock at 11:54 AM on March 8, 2018 [2 favorites]
So not a dumpster, but a trash can fire used in metaphor.
posted by Doc_Sock at 11:54 AM on March 8, 2018 [2 favorites]
Best answer: I'm not about to click on this link but WFMU has a live set from Radar Secret Service from October 25, 2002 here, and I'm guessing this is the track list:
live set from Radar Secret Service! engineered by Diane Farris
1. you are hollywood
2. dumpster fire
3. shut in
4. nickelodeon
5. my education
6. charred vs missing
(break)
7. i can't say i care
8. destroy
9. pencil stabs
10. let's be cruel
11. eyes of satan
posted by jabes at 12:25 PM on March 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
live set from Radar Secret Service! engineered by Diane Farris
1. you are hollywood
2. dumpster fire
3. shut in
4. nickelodeon
5. my education
6. charred vs missing
(break)
7. i can't say i care
8. destroy
9. pencil stabs
10. let's be cruel
11. eyes of satan
posted by jabes at 12:25 PM on March 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Here's a Hartford Courant piece (8-28-2016) about the origin of the expression. A writer from the Columbia Journal Review traced it to a 2008 blog post, and it was in reference to politics. Apparently sports writers picked it up from there, and journalism more generally adopted it after the sports writers normalized it.
Regarding the n-gram's spike in the 90s, a search through newspapers.com confirms that the uses of it in the 80s and 90s were about literal fires in actual dumpsters.
posted by mudpuppie at 12:25 PM on March 8, 2018 [3 favorites]
Regarding the n-gram's spike in the 90s, a search through newspapers.com confirms that the uses of it in the 80s and 90s were about literal fires in actual dumpsters.
posted by mudpuppie at 12:25 PM on March 8, 2018 [3 favorites]
Best answer: And here's the CJR article cited by the Hartford Courant, which in turn links to posts from Language Log and Oxford words blogs. Ain't the internet great sometimes?
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 12:31 PM on March 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 12:31 PM on March 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thanks, jabes! I'd found that page, but hadn't noticed there was a player! Sadly, they are very difficult to understand.
Mudpuppie / Know-it-some, that 'blog post is great, thank you!
Surprisingly, the _Scholars & Rogues_ article is from July 14th, 2008, and the Urban Dictionary Post is from July 10, 2008, making it still the oldest citation I can find.
posted by Squid Voltaire at 12:53 PM on March 8, 2018
Mudpuppie / Know-it-some, that 'blog post is great, thank you!
Surprisingly, the _Scholars & Rogues_ article is from July 14th, 2008, and the Urban Dictionary Post is from July 10, 2008, making it still the oldest citation I can find.
posted by Squid Voltaire at 12:53 PM on March 8, 2018
Here's a thought: the Scholars&Rhodes blog writer was about to use the phrase, but they worried people wouldn't know what it meant. So they went to Urban Dictionary and added an entry before publication.
posted by thelastpolarbear at 5:11 PM on March 8, 2018
posted by thelastpolarbear at 5:11 PM on March 8, 2018
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by BlahLaLa at 11:47 AM on March 8, 2018