[gblews]

The Mirrorball Man wrote:

---

It's a cheap and easy way to indicate that a character is more sophisticated than he appears, without resorting to opera or abstract art, things that may be perceived as lessening his "though guy" aura.

Don't know that I'de call it "cheap", but I agree that having the tough guy like jazz is meant to convey to the audience that the character has a certain sophistication. It also allows the character the ability to maintain an aura of "coolness".

Gov Kodos wrote:

---

Here's a neat dictionary of jazz age slang, which sounds like every detective cliche ever used in hard-boiled detective novels http://home.earthlink.net/~dlarkins/slang-pg.htm

I've done a lot of listening to and reading about jazz and it's history and that is the strangest list of so called "jazz slang", I've ever seen. I didn't even see the word "cat" listed under the "C" category. Weird list.