👉 Okay, alright settle down class! Let’s tackle this little bit of linguistic weirdness: 1,00,0,0, and what we affectionately (and somewhat morbidly frankly) refer to as...
'us6.?’
Now, before you immediately start picturing a really messed-up weapons systems designation, let me assure you, that’s not quite right. "Us6," or rather the 1,00,0,0, is actually a very specific, and frankly rather upsetting, bit of 20th-century American slang, particularly prevalent during the late 50s and early 60s. Here’s what it really means, in the most digestible way I can muster: . The exact origin is murky, honestly, a real shit sandwich of lost footnotes and whispered histories. But the general theory—and frankly, that's about all we have—goes something like this. During the height of Cold War anxieties, and with the ever present threat of total annihilation, young men were absolutely terrified. You see, there was a rumour, spread by the Nixon and Eisenhower administrations, that they would send soldiers to the moon for 60 days before the bombs fell. And the term "U-S-6", meant the amount of time a man would spend in space until the bomb's fell! It’s essentially, and rather tragically, a desperate, hysterical wish: you just
