“Five O” means Mustang? Not to anybody who was around when the Mustang appeared. Or for that matter when the five liter engine appeared. It started life as an engine for station wagons (remember those?), and by the time it reached five liters found new life as an engine for pickup trucks and school busses. (Cool, huh?) Lingo ephemerally fashionable among dumb high school kids at some particular point in time hardly establishes an eternal definition of a phrase … thank gawd. And let’s not confuse “pimp out” with “pimp up.” “Pimp out” is what was done to the Lincoln bedroom – an appropriately Clintonian concept.
The reporter was using English correctly – as a tool of communication. Current street lingo is a tool of communication if you happen to live on the street. Most of us don’t – again, thank gawd.
