Metropolitan Diary: When Stahdahs Were Stahdahs I had just come to New York in the late 1960s and rented a roach-infested apartment for $75 a month on East 25th Street. The fluorescent light in the bathroom refused to come on even after putting in a new bulb. I saw a miniature tin-can-shaped thingy that, with a twist, came out easily. I took it to my favorite and helpful hardware store on Third Avenue, Schneider's Hardware, run by Mrs. Schneider. She was an encyclopedia of helpful information for a new arrival in the city. I told her the problem and asked her what the small, tin-colored cylinder in my hand was called. She said, "Those are stahdahs." "O.K., give me a stahdah," I repeated back. She said O.K. and rang it up. I paid and left. As I was walking back to my apartment, I dissembled the curious word stahdahs. Stahdahs, stahdahs ... starters? Starter? It's a starter! About the same time I heard a cabdriver say, "Toity-toid and Toid." Those accents have succumbed to the accentless voices on radio and television. Some of the nuance and color of New York is gone.