OT: "Hanging paper" slang

[Don Y]

My "metalized paint" post conjured up an old, unrelated memory.

When I was in school, I worked in the Combat Zone in Boston. Kind of a seedy sort of place (and I'm being kind :> )

One of the guys I used to encounter regularly had a guest with him one day. Conversation turned to "employment"/careers.

In a very casual manner, this guy's vocation was described as "He and hangs wallpaper" -- or something like this. It made no sense to me and they both enjoyed a laugh at my expense.

When "translated" into plain english, it was something along the lines of " and writing bad checks" -- *professionally*.

So, my question: what was the likely phrase that was initially used (mumblemumble) and what was the correct "translation"?

[Ed Pawlowski]

Paperhanger is the term for someone passing fraudulent checks. Could be he as an engraver or counterfeiter too. There is probably a slang term for it.

[Kenny Long]

You should've stayed in school. You wait until you're a senile old goat to ask this question. More than those two guys enjoyed a laugh at your expense.

[Don Y]

And, yet you (nor anyone else, apparently) can't answer the missing half of the phrase?

Sad fool.

[Don Y]

Yes, as I said, he was described as doing " and hanging wallpaper". I know the reference to "passing bad paper"; what I don't know (remember) is the other, equally shady, occupation (i.e., its slang expression) that would accompany this -- in the way that "mashed potatoes and gravy" fit, synergistically.

Having never passed a bad check -- intentionally or otherwise -- its not the sort of activity I would be fluent discussing! :>

[My 2 Cents]

On 12/29/2015 8:34 PM, Don Y wrote: Someday in the future someone will perfect a time machine and you can go back in time and ask them in person ... which means this post won't ever have happened.

[Don Y]

You don't need to "go back and ask" as long as you can "go back and observe (hear)"!

It means my friend's friend will, also, probably never have been able to engage in those activities! :>

[taxed and spent]

it may have had nothing to do with the paperhanging. It could be "he steals furs and writes bad checks" or anything else.

[Don Y]

This just *rolled* off his tongue. It wasn't like he paused to concoct some colorful way of describing the action. And, if the had been something obviously criminal ("steals furs"), I wouldn't have been puzzled by the reply. (As a teenager, I had no exposure to THAT sort of crime, yet would obviously have recognized the description of a criminal act!)

Doubtful that many folks had so naively asked his "occupation", before. So, the fact that he could so readily describe it in such a colorful way leads me to believe it was a common expression -- two "related" activities.

[I've never met anyone to describe their source of income with terms even vaguely similar to those! :> ]

[taxed and spent]

I meant the mumblemumble could have been slang for some other type of criminal activity.

for someone who doesn't remember and didn't understand in the first place, you sure seem sure they were related activities.

[Don Y]

I'm *sure* it was some other criminal activity! I just have no idea what sort of criminal activities a "forger" would likely engage in alongside check kiting, etc.!

The *phrase* rolled off his tongue like it was commonplace ("in those circles"). He didn't pause to think of some colorful way of presenting it to a teenager. He stated it matter-of-factly. His friend (the "criminal" in question) had no problem translating it without thinking about which "activities" the phrase described.

(Who's to say he only engaged in TWO criminal activities? For all I know, he could have ALSO been an enforcer, bank robber, pimp, etc. He apparently lived a rather comfortable lifestyle... He's the one who showed me the folly of "Chasing the Lady" and how easy it was to con the rubes out front, on the street!)

[DerbyDad03]

Check kiting and "paper hanging" are not the same thing.

[Tekkie®]

Don Y posted for all of us...

Forgery

[Wild Bill]

A forger is most likely a pudgy, bald, loser coward that lives in his mom's basement.

Now Ocean's 11, that's a team of criminals I could respect. ;-)

[Don Y]

This guy was anything but! Very "dapper", dressed to the nines, etc. The reason I moseyed over to chat with him and my friend was because he looked *so* "out of place" -- and so unlikely a colleague of my friend's!

[Dean Hoffman]

Some cut.

There's no definition of "chasing the lady" in the Urban Dictionary. I gotta ask. Whatsit?

[Don Y]

Three card monte. The "lady" being the Queen (as in, "where's the queen")

[>>>Ashton Crusher]

I can't think of the colloquial phrase but I'm thinking the mumblemumble might have been about scamming people with "can you change this $10" slight of hand where you wind up with more than $10 in change when the dust settles... Like "He flips sawbucks and hangs paper"

[DerbyDad03]

The technical name is "short change" which was derived from "short con" which is essentially any con that can be pulled off quickly and easily.

When I was young and working in a corner drugstore in NYC it also had another name which is I *think* was "the army game" but I could be wrong.

The "army game" was a nickname for the "find the pea" con, which was a type of short con and therefore the "army game" name may just have been mistakenly attached to the "short change" con.

When it worked in a corner drug store in NYC, people used to actually try the short change con on me, but even as a 14 year old kid I could recognize it.

My boss taught me well. On the other hand, he may not have used all of his lessons very well. A short time after I went in the service my mom sent me a newspaper clipping telling the story about how my boss was found shot in the back of the head in the back room of the store, hands tied behind his back. The paper said it looked like the place had been ransacked and robbed but they could not determine what was missing, I knew better.

The back room *always* looked like it had been ransacked. I'm pretty sure that the killing was somehow related to the brown paper bags of cash that I often delivered to the cigar smoking guys in the office of the car wash across the street. I think my boss missed a payment.

[>>>Ashton Crusher]

I would think it was due to more then simply missing "a payment". Perhaps them finding out he'd been skimming 10% off the money being delivered for a year past.