DINGBAT: Three Definitions

One that I didn't know

Dear Friend,

Has anyone ever called you a “dingbat?”

1. Dingbat: a person who's dumb, silly, or just empty-headed. (Vocubulary.com)

Vocubulary.com also notes that, like “knucklehead,” the term is insulting but not highly offensive, and is a little humorous. 

I was familiar with this definition, as well as the one used in typography:

2. Dingbat: A dingbat is a decorative element available in type format. Dingbats can be graphic elements such as squares, triangles, hearts, checkmarks, pinwheels, lighting bolts, arrows or stars. They can also be small illustrations of anything you can imagine: a pointing finger, a pencil, a pair of scissors. (MyFonts.com)

According to MyFonts.com, ITC Zapf Dingbats is the best-known dingbat font — the one that comes with your software. 

The third definition of dingbat, I didn’t know — even after almost twenty years in Southern California.

(A short digression:) For the last couple of weeks I’ve been laboring over what series of images will comprise the opening sequence of my short film. How many images should there be?  How many seconds should each image appear on screen? Which images should have credits over them? Should I fade in and out between images or cut directly? Etc. 

Another big question has been: should one of the images be the exterior of the apartment building where the story takes place (like The Brady Bunch)?

If yes, I needed to find the right building. It would have to be visually interesting, match the vibe of the film, reflect the personality and circumstances of the fictional character inside it, and realistically coexist with previously filmed information elements (like the hallway outside the front door and a large dumpster in a driveway).

After none of the dozens of photos I collected on my phone’s photo reel during walks and drives was quite right, I tasked Paul with searching stock photos for what I described as “like a bungalow, but not, and kind of retro.”

He consulted his new A.I. best friend, who informed us there is a more exact term for this type of building (end digression): 

3. Dingbat (building): A boxy, two or three-story apartment house with an overhang sheltering street-front parking. (Wikipedia)

Many dingbats were built between 1950 and 1970 in Southern California (700,000 units in the 1950s alone). 

They look like this: 

photos taken from internet, not my own

In the end, for various reasons, I decided NOT to include an exterior image, so no dingbats will featured in my film, but, armed with this new vocabulary, the next time I travel through L.A., I will look out my car window with a heightened awareness of this style of architecture and name it to myself with some self-satisfaction… Dingbat.

Does your area have buildings with a distinctive style of architecture?

Later, gators,

B