Bronze Age Pop Culture Assistance Needed: What does "Blexcroid" mean? 1 1

[Off Panel]

This morning I was reading an old Bronze Age Marvel book cover dated July 1975. (That sounds cooler than admitting I was reading Arrgh! #4, so I'm going with that.) When I got to the Bullpen Bulletins page, there was a short anecdote in Stan's Soapbox about going to Penn State and seeing the word "blexcroid" everywhere, but they wouldn't tell Stan what it meant.

That was a new one on me -- I was in elementary school in '75 -- and I was curious. Luckily I've got the Internet, the sum of all mankind's knowledge to date, at my fingertips, so I figured I'd just look it up.

Well, the Internet definitely seems to confirm it was a thing. In fact, it was this dude's senior quote in the 1978 Ursinus College yearbook:

I also see all sorts of people out there with "Blexcroid" screen names or winking references to the term. What I don't see, however, is any sort of definition.

So, if you are Robert Jamie Brancatelli, Class of '78, or just someone who is cooler than me (which is not a small group of people), spill the tea. What does "blexcroid" mean? (Apologies in advance if it is something unspeakable that will get both me and all of you kicked off the boards and put on government watch lists.)

 

[MAR1979]

On 10/16/2022 at 2:48 PM, Off Panel said:

This morning I was reading an old Bronze Age Marvel book cover dated July 1975. (That sounds cooler than admitting I was reading Arrgh! #4, so I'm going with that.) When I got to the Bullpen Bulletins page, there was a short anecdote in Stan's Soapbox about going to Penn State and seeing the word "blexcroid" everywhere, but they wouldn't tell Stan what it meant.

That was a new one on me -- I was in elementary school in '75 -- and I was curious. Luckily I've got the Internet, the sum of all mankind's knowledge to date, at my fingertips, so I figured I'd just look it up.

Well, the Internet definitely seems to confirm it was a thing. In fact, it was this dude's senior quote in the 1978 Ursinus College yearbook:

I also see all sorts of people out there with "Blexcroid" screen names or winking references to the term. What I don't see, however, is any sort of definition.

So, if you are Robert Jamie Brancatelli, Class of '78, or just someone who is cooler than me (which is not a small group of people), spill the tea. What does "blexcroid" mean? (Apologies in advance if it is something unspeakable that will get both me and all of you kicked off the boards and put on government watch lists.)

 

hmmmm Penn State and timeline fits - probably code for Paterno ignoring what Sandusky was doing

Edited October 17, 2022 by MAR1979

[Off Panel]

On 10/16/2022 at 10:02 PM, MAR1979 said:

hmmmm Penn State and timeline fits - probably code for Paterno ignoring what Sandusky was doing

Definitely an interesting theory, if a little on the dark side...

[eastriver400]

 

This just got creepy. 

 

 

Why do I feel like I'm in a Netflix documentary?

 

 

Edited October 17, 2022 by eastriver400

[Brock]

So think I may have solved this mystery... I reached out on social media to one of the young students pictured in the original post here. His initials are RJB, but I want to avoid "doxxing" him in future web searches.

I asked him about the term blexcroid, and here's his response:

This is a very interesting question with even more interesting timing. Things from my past seem to be popping up lately like mushrooms after a summer rain. Of course, I wouldn't have guessed "blexcroid" would be one of those mushrooms...In any case, here goes. I will tell you what I know and try to put it in some kind of logical order. If you find it valuable, great. If not, then I hope what I have to say doesn't throw you off the trail. By the way, I should add that I am very impressed with your detective skills and what must have been dogged determination to get to me. And how you found the 1978 Ursinus College yearbook is anybody's guess, especially being in Canada and not Pennsylvania.

During my final years at Ursinus (1977-78), I came across stickers plastered around campus with the single word "blexcroid" on them, much as you and Stan Lee describe. I didn't know what it meant and asked several times. I remember getting answers that were vague. Here is what I gathered from direct conversation and inference.

1. Blexcroid was regional; that is, in the Pennsylvania-New Jersey area but especially around Philadelphia and the surrounding counties.

2. It was not used by locals (i.e., "townies") but college students.

3. It did not mean anything in the etymological sense but rather was a made-up word that stood for a few things. Those things were vague but had to do with resistance, subculture, rock music, trickery, knavery, jestering, and a sort of underground conspiracy that was not serious but a very student-picaresque-Peter Pan counter to the adult world of Philadelphia bankers (of which I became one briefly...!). It was also working class and pre-grunge at the same time.

4. The resistance dimension of blexcroid reminded me at the time, and still does, of Kilroy in the forties. And, oddly enough, it also had a FUBAR connotation to it. So, in that sense it was almost like the next generation's resistance-graffiti, although not as widespread as Kilroy.

5. Finally, I can see blexcroid now as an innocent, harmless counter to the dullness of bureaucracy and the managerial class that so many of us went into after college, especially since back then unemployment and interest rates were sky high.

6. In a very real sense, blexcroid was a game that didn't mean anything but made you part of an invisible brotherhood/club if you took up the mantle, which I did by putting it with my graduation photo. Actually, at the time everybody else was putting that saying on their photo that if you love something you have to let it go and if it comes back/doesn't come back something or other will happen, blah blah. So blexcroid was a subtle, secretive way of saying up yours. It was code.

[LowGradeBronze]

I wonder if anyone told Stan. 

[Off Panel]

On 12/21/2022 at 2:00 PM, Brock said:

So think I may have solved this mystery... I reached out on social media to one of the young students pictured in the original post here. His initials are RJB, but I want to avoid "doxxing" him in future web searches.

I asked him about the term blexcroid, and here's his response:

This is a very interesting question with even more interesting timing. Things from my past seem to be popping up lately like mushrooms after a summer rain. Of course, I wouldn't have guessed "blexcroid" would be one of those mushrooms...In any case, here goes. I will tell you what I know and try to put it in some kind of logical order. If you find it valuable, great. If not, then I hope what I have to say doesn't throw you off the trail. By the way, I should add that I am very impressed with your detective skills and what must have been dogged determination to get to me. And how you found the 1978 Ursinus College yearbook is anybody's guess, especially being in Canada and not Pennsylvania.

During my final years at Ursinus (1977-78), I came across stickers plastered around campus with the single word "blexcroid" on them, much as you and Stan Lee describe. I didn't know what it meant and asked several times. I remember getting answers that were vague. Here is what I gathered from direct conversation and inference.

1. Blexcroid was regional; that is, in the Pennsylvania-New Jersey area but especially around Philadelphia and the surrounding counties.

2. It was not used by locals (i.e., "townies") but college students.

3. It did not mean anything in the etymological sense but rather was a made-up word that stood for a few things. Those things were vague but had to do with resistance, subculture, rock music, trickery, knavery, jestering, and a sort of underground conspiracy that was not serious but a very student-picaresque-Peter Pan counter to the adult world of Philadelphia bankers (of which I became one briefly...!). It was also working class and pre-grunge at the same time.

4. The resistance dimension of blexcroid reminded me at the time, and still does, of Kilroy in the forties. And, oddly enough, it also had a FUBAR connotation to it. So, in that sense it was almost like the next generation's resistance-graffiti, although not as widespread as Kilroy.

5. Finally, I can see blexcroid now as an innocent, harmless counter to the dullness of bureaucracy and the managerial class that so many of us went into after college, especially since back then unemployment and interest rates were sky high.

6. In a very real sense, blexcroid was a game that didn't mean anything but made you part of an invisible brotherhood/club if you took up the mantle, which I did by putting it with my graduation photo. Actually, at the time everybody else was putting that saying on their photo that if you love something you have to let it go and if it comes back/doesn't come back something or other will happen, blah blah. So blexcroid was a subtle, secretive way of saying up yours. It was code.

@Brock You are the man!

(Not "the man" that the blexcroid counter-culture was rebelling against, but "the man" who has mad detective skills and comes through in the clutch!)

Thanks for tracking down a member of the blexcroid movement of the time and getting a first-hand account. I had kinda reached the conclusion that blexcroid was a nonsense word created to make people curious and an experiment to see how far this early meme could spread. While I still think there are elements of both of those things, RJB's explanation is much more satisfying.

I also love the comparison to Kilroy. In both cases, people seeing the mysterious message crop up more and more in random and unusual places must have reacted with confusion/curiosity/annoyance/uneasiness, depending upon their fundamental natures.

Thanks for taking my quest a step further and answering the question like a champ. I have often heard it said that "the boards know everything." Case in point!

 

[Psychiasis]

"Blexcroid" is not a recognized term in comic book or pop culture lexicon. It appears to be a made-up word or a misspelling. Without any contextual information or known references, it is challenging to determine its meaning or significance. It is advisable to provide more details or correct the term for a more accurate response.