That's zalid

May 18, 2020 7:49 AM

From the "Side Effects" by Woody Allen: An actress I met, who assured me her real ambition was to be a waitress at a coffeehouse, seemed promising, but during one brief dinner her single response to everything I said was, "That's zalid."

I don't get the joke ... what is 'zalid'?

posted by falsedmitri to Writing & Language (8 answers total)

Solid; maybe.
posted by rongorongo at 8:28 AM on May 18, 2020 [1 favorite]

I found this excerpt of the same that replaces the comment with "Oh, wow": https://newrepublic.com/article/79233/the-lunatics-tale

My guess is that it's a typo for "valid"!
posted by dusty potato at 8:28 AM on May 18, 2020 [4 favorites]

I guess the joke is that she's trying to say "that's valid" but isn't too bright and doesn't know the actual word.
posted by less of course at 8:29 AM on May 18, 2020 [3 favorites]

Say "solid" like you're Woody Allen and it's "zalid."
posted by MonsieurBon at 10:32 AM on May 18, 2020 [1 favorite]

(I don't think "Solid" on its own, as a sentence, was anything anyone said 40 years ago.)
posted by less of course at 12:31 PM on May 18, 2020 [3 favorites]

If it's a typo, it's one that's gone uncorrected for a long time. I remember puzzling over this same question in the 80s.
posted by nebulawindphone at 12:58 PM on May 18, 2020

If it's a typo, it's one that's gone uncorrected for a long time.

I don’t know if that would really surprise me though. How many runs of these collections have been made? Would they get proofed each time? Would anyone bother to mail the editor when it’s not even clear whether it’s a typo or not?

It may have just blended in, unnoticed, through the years, like the titular character in Velig.
posted by condour75 at 11:05 PM on May 18, 2020

“Solid” is something people absolutely would have said as a sentence 40 years ago, especially the stereotypically lowbrow low-rent outer borough/Jersey types who have been a frequent target of Woody Allen’s contempt, as in this case. I speak as an old who occasionally used it in conversation with friends for a laugh. This wouldn’t have baffled me at all if I’d read it 40 years ago, it would have seemed to clearly mean “solid” spoken with a sleazy slangy stoner street inflection.
posted by newmoistness at 9:02 PM on May 20, 2020 [2 favorites]