Re: Old Habits Die Hard

[dan.strassberg@att.net]

Yeah but the buttons that increment or decrement the 
frequency or that make the tuner (there's that word 
again) seek another strong signal at a higher or lower 
frequency are still called tuning controls. (And, in 
fact, once you get past the buttons and the display, 
most of the circuitry in the tuners of nearly all AM and 
FM radios is still analog.) You do have a good point 
about "Don't touch that dial," and similar expressions, 
however. Still, "don't touch that dial" sounds a lot 
better than "Don't touch that tuning control," or 
even "Don't touch that 'seek' button." I think the fact 
that "dial" sounds nice has a lot to do with why 
everybody still talks about "dialing" phone numbers. 
When was the last time you saw a dial telephone?

I would be interesting to know whether other languages 
retain "dial" as a synonym for "key in" or "punch in" in 
contexts that actually once involved dials or rotary 
controls.

> And how about all the times they say "stay tuned"-- who tunes anything 
> anymore?  That goes back to the 1920s (!) when you really did have to 
> jiggle a bunch of knobs and dials to receive a station.  Don't most 
> radios  today have automatic tuning or push buttons rather than dials?  And 
> yes, I still hear "keep your dial set to station XXX..."