The Idle American We called prized possessions “gen-u-wine” back in the day. That’s not the correct spelling, of course, but when the word fell from our lips, we emphasized each syllable to make sure hearers clearly understood that our claims were 100% true. “Genuine” back then was about as far away from “fake” as the east is from the west. Generally speaking, when this adjective was used, the description was as pure as the driven snow. As an example, reference to “genuine leather” seemed to inflate the value of such items as boots, belts and holsters. Nowadays, “fake” is heard more often than ...