As the nation’s cosplay patriots are being informed upon willy-nilly across the country (and let’s hear it for the ex-wives), a lovely and anachronistic expression has emerged. In a gangster movie, when you would turn someone in, you might be said to be “dropping a dime” on them. This refers to putting a ten-cent piece into a payphone. The expression experienced its first dissonance when payphone calls went up to 25 cents in the early 1980s. “I’m dropping a quarter on Muggsy Malone,” doesn’t have quite the same zip to it as “dropping a dime.” Now that payphones are a relic and everyone turns each other in free of charge, the phrase has no modern relevance at all. Its use is becoming less and less common, but given the ten-cent payphone’s decades-old disappearance, that it persists at all is testament to its charm. It is one of those rare expressions that has (somewhat) survived the now forty-year gap since its direct relevance.
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