Real Corker - 21 April 2025
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You're listening to A Way With Words, the show about language and how we use it. I'm Grant Barrett. And I'm Martha Barnett.

And one of the things that gets Grant and me really excited is workplace slang. And we love getting examples of this from our listeners. And we got some from Ned Green, who shared with us some of the vocabulary from his workplace, which includes escargot, boilerplate, and death cookies. This is a French restaurant, right? Escargot, cookies, chicken, whatever.

No. Ned is a member of the ski patrol at Sugarbush Resort in northern Vermont. Oh, famous. Yeah, classic ski place. Sure. Right. And one of the terms they use is escargot. He says that at the end of the ski day, we sweep the mountain by skiing every trail after the chairlifts have

closed looking for stray guests. And so if they have to radio each other to let them know that there's somebody still up on the mountain, you know, they'll say we have some escargot here. Oh, because they're slow. So the guests who are slow, they're slow like snails, therefore they're escargot. Got it. Right.

And then, you know, sometimes the snow's condition will deteriorate because of thawing and freezing and thawing and freezing. And he says when the trail conditions get hard and unpleasant, we can end up with boilerplate. That's a hard surface with some rumpling that makes your skis chatter. And he says if the texture gets particularly nasty, they might refer to that as death cookies. Right.

Referring to the fact that there are all these random blobs sticking up. Sometimes they're called frozen chicken heads. But anyway, it's just a way of making your job a little more interesting. Yeah, that sounds really unpleasant, like all those bumps. It's like when you work in a restaurant and there's all that stuff in the walk-in freezer back in the corner that hasn't been moved in years. You know, that's what it sounds like, that kind of frozen stuff. Yeah.

And what would you call that? I think that's death cookies.

Thank you, Ned, for the slang from Sugarbush. We really appreciate it. And if you have some slang from your workplace, send it along, words at waywardradio.org, or gabble it into our voicemail at 877-929-9673. That's toll-free in Canada and the United States, 24 hours a day. And if you're somewhere else in the world, we have a WhatsApp number. Find it on our website at waywardradio.org.

Hello, you have a way with words. Hello, it's Cynthia Johnson from Beaver Island, Michigan. Beaver Island, Michigan. Hello, Cynthia. Well, we have an expression here on Beaver Island. It's been around for quite a while. It's called boodling. It's more often an action verb, but it can also be a

A Boodle. I would say to you, hey there, you guys want to have a way with words Boodle? And we'll drive around the island and we'll do nothing but talk about words. Just drive around. We're in. We're coming. Shoot the breeze. That's a Boodle. What else do we do on a Boodle? Do it. Do it. You can do whatever you want on a Boodle.

The word, I looked up this word meaning 15 years ago when I first came here, and it had a little bit to do with the Irish, maybe even illegal money, you know, like boodle. Yeah, there is a boodle that, a boodle is like illegal, it's related to booty, like illegal money that you get through graft or corruption.

So it sounds a lot like being a teenager and cruising through downtown in the Walmart parking lot in the middle of nowhere, Missouri, which is what I know. It sounds a lot like that, you know, going through the drive-thru to see who's working that night. Yeah, well, there's nothing to do here except for, you know, enjoy the nature, the lake, the beautiful. Oh, that's not nothing. Yeah.

So that's part of it. You know, our boodles consist of one gravel road that goes all the way around the island. And you get quite a lot of Lake Michigan views and views of other islands in the archipelago. You're killing me. There's many kinds of boodles.

Well, Cynthia, would you believe that I am actually familiar with this word, boodle, because my brother's family has vacationed on Beaver Island for many, many years. And in fact, one of my family members has a sweatshirt that says boodling on it. Or maybe it says boodle. I'm not sure. But what's distinctive about this sweatshirt is that it has a bottle opener built into the pocket. Does that sound familiar? Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yep.

You bootle on down to the hardware and grab one of those sweatshirts with a can opener built in. That way, if you're 20 miles down on a bootle, can't get back, can't find a can opener, there you have it. I see. Yeah. Well, that's how it was explained to me, that bootle means to just wander about the island in a carefree manner, maybe in a beat-up old car or a truck that has a picnic table installed.

in the back. I've heard of that. As a matter of fact, to keep this exciting, there is a word in the Philippines, a boodle,

It's more of a boodle fight. There's a song about it. And people get together and they have a boodle fight. They just spread the table with food and they all eat this magnificent food. I did come across that meeting. So that was pretty cool too. It's a boodle what? How do you spell the last word? F-I-G-H-T. Yeah. Google that. It's crazy. I thought maybe a boodle bite for a spread of food. Yeah.

Yeah, and the etymology of it seems to be pretty non-existent, wouldn't you say, Grant? I suspect it's just what's known as a noncecoinage, which means somebody just found a funny word and decided to use it.

But it's a point of pride on Beaver Island. It sounds like you all have. Somebody came up with the word there and it's been adopted. Embrace it. Celebrate it. Yeah. I got to say, Cynthia, this sounds like a really good time and a wonderful place. And I'm so happy that you're sharing it with us and everyone else on the radio. Thank you, guys. Thank you so much. Take care. Bye-bye.

Call us up or send us an email. You can find all those numbers and all those ways to reach us on our website at waywardradio.org. People might never know that Quality Jazz exists outside the city of Baton Rouge. That sounds like a commercial, Martha. Does it? Does it also sound like a pangram?

Oh, wow. That's great. Because usually people have to like shoehorn the X in there, but there it is and exists. Yes. And double Z in jazz. Right. Well done. Well done. Way to go, Wendy. Nice. Nice.

And we'll take all your questions and thoughts and ideas about language on our toll-free line, United States and Canada, 877-929-9673. Hello, you have a way with words. Hi, my name is Kate. I'm calling from Greenville, South Carolina. Hi, Kate. Welcome to the show. Hi, thanks so much. What can we do for you? My grandfather, I have this childhood memory of sitting at a table with him in Murray, Kentucky.

And he was eating one of his favorite snacks and he used the word larapin, as in this is so larapin, which I'm assuming is a synonym for delicious. And I never saw the word again. I thought maybe it was something he made up or I didn't know where this word came from.

came from. I will say a few years ago, maybe five, six years ago, I was reading a Barbara Kingsolver novel, Feather Crowns. And in that book, one of the characters uses larrapin, and I got so excited to see the word again. And also to be introduced to the spelling of it. And I don't know, I've never seen it. I don't know anything. I haven't seen it again. I don't know anything about it and wondered if you could shed some light on it. Okay.

I love that it was a Barbara Kingsolver novel that brought it back to you because she's such a great writer and she does have that feel for language. Yeah, and that you got to see it in print and see one of the many, many spellings. Yeah, there's so many. Yeah, I was so excited to see it. Yeah, anyways, go ahead. Sorry. No, you nailed the one meaning of it, which is delicious. It's so often used with food, Martha, but it

Didn't start that way. No, larap, the word larap itself is an old verb that means to beat or thrash. And the term larapin meaning something that's really good, especially food.

food is sort of like an intensifying word, like whopping or striking or thumping. It's that same idea, you know, something that really beats everything else. But yeah, larapin has been around for a while. One of my favorite uses of it

that you'll see in print was from Woody Guthrie's autobiography back in 1943. He said, anything you like real good and ain't got for a long time and then you get it, that's Larapin. Oh, isn't that terrific? That's exactly right. I

Yeah, my grandfather was eating this snack, you know, and he at this point was in his 70s, 80s. And it was a cold glass of milk with white bread torn up in it and smashed down and stirred in.

and as best as I knew, this was a snack that he had been given during the depression when he was growing up, and he just thought it was the most, he said larapin, and doesn't that, I just, and I love to know the verb of it, that

Doesn't that beat all? Wonderful. And there's that verb again, beat, to mean strike or hit. And we have so many of these, Martha, that took on a meaning of emphasis. Like we talk about a smashing success. Smash. Yeah. And so...

I don't know what spelling Barbara Kingsolver used, but Woody Guthrie spelled it L-A-R-E-P-I-N with an apostrophe. The version I usually see in the United States is L-A-R-R-U-P-I-N-G, larapin, either with or without the G. But I love that you were reunited with that word and with that wonderful memory. So, yeah.

Kate, thank you so much for sharing the memories and for sharing your thoughts with us. Thank you so much. Call us again sometime, all right? Sure. Okay. Bye. Bye. Bye. There is some kind of connection between

with language and memory that is so similar to the connection of smell and memory and taste and memory. We'd like to help reinforce that connection between language and memory. Call us 877-929-9673. Email words

at waywardradio.org or talk to us on social media. There are a dozen handles and lots of ways to reach us. Find them all on our website where you can also find all of our past episodes at no cost to you. waywardradio.org music

If you're feeling down in the dumps, the French have a wonderful expression for this. To have the spirits in your socks? Yeah, to have your morale in your socks. To be down, like your heart has sunk in your shoes, basically. All the way down into your socks.

That's, yeah, that second, your spirit. So you're down in the dumps, basically. Sad trombone. Oh, that sounds bad. 877-929-9673. This episode is brought to you by State Farm.

You might say all kinds of stuff when things go wrong, but these are the words you really need to remember. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. They've got options to fit your unique insurance needs, meaning you can talk to your agent to choose the coverage you need, have coverage options to protect the things you value most, file a claim right on the State Farm mobile app, and even reach a real person when you need to talk to someone. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

You're listening to A Way With Words, the show about language and how we use it. I'm Martha Barnett. And I'm Grant Barrett. Look who just popped out of a birthday cake. It's our quiz guy, John Chinesky.

You know, it sounds very interesting, but it's really rather messy. And, well, excuse me as I just slough off some whipped cream. Now, you guys know the Enigma, the monthly newsletter of the National Puzzlers League, of which I am a member. The Enigma has puzzles using various types of wordplay, and one of them is the false wordplay. For example, the word checker is a false comparative wordplay.

It doesn't mean "more check." It's a playing piece. So today's quiz is what I might call a false store, a word that sounds like it describes a shop where they sell something, but it's not real. For example, a place where they sell baked goods is definitely a bakery, but if they sell flying mammals, you might call it a battery, but still has nothing to do with power cells, even though it sounds like it does.

Now, most of these are phonetic. Bat doesn't have two Ts. Gotcha. But so what? Yeah. All right. So what would you call these false stores? Now, this would be a very clever name for a blacksmith shop or any place where they mold metal parts. It has nothing to do with printing fake banknotes. Aha. Forgery. A forgery. Forgery. Yes. Very good. Not a store. It might be a place where hardened criminals live.

Another name for a prison. It has nothing to do with a green vegetable. Celery. The celery. Yes. Place where I guess you can buy cells. I don't know. Maybe it's a, I don't know. They sell, I don't know, single-celled animals or something. I don't know. Now, this is an actual location that offers painting and sculpting classes. It has nothing to do with the circulatory system.

Oh, the artery. The artery, yes. That inspired this quiz. Yeah. Now, this might be one of those new age shops that spray fine particles into the air for you to inhale for aromatherapy purposes. You know, it has nothing to do with Sherlock Holmes. Mystery. The mystery. I'd wager there may even be a store called the mystery. Probably. Yeah. Yeah.

This would be an unwise idea for a petting zoo, just rams and other animals that are territorial and knock you about. It has nothing to do with churning milk or cream. Oh, buttery. The buttery, yes. Again, not a good idea to bring your kids to the buttery. Finally, this is a cute name for a spa, a place where you go to get a relaxing massage. It has little to do with a vulcanized material.

Rubbery. The rubbery, yes. And on that note, I'm going to head myself down to the rubbery and maybe get a nice little shiatsu or something like that. What are we going to do with all this cake?

eat it get yourself an egg and eat it and at the hatchery can't you just climb back in the cake and pull it over i'll just that's how i get to the rubbery i climb back into the cake so goodbye guys all right bye john we'll see you next week take care see you then well if you would like to engage in word nerdery with us the place to do it is right here give us a call 877-929-9673 or send those

emails to words at waywardradio.org. Hey there, you have a way with words. This is Patrick here calling in from lower Manhattan. Well, we're glad to hear from you. What's on your mind today? So my question today is about the phrase ride or die. I hear it all over on social media, in music, in conversation. I use it myself. And while I think I understand the meaning of the term, I don't quite know how it connects to the words themselves.

You could be a Ride or Die friend, a Ride or Die fan, a Ride or Die partner, but I don't know the origin and I'm curious to hear more. So this is Ride or Die, three words, R-I-D-E-O-R-D-I-E.

Do you use this? Do you have ride-or-die friends? I do. Yeah, I'm very grateful for them. But yeah, I use it in conversation. And I've heard it used to describe friendships, again, romantic partnerships, even for fans of musical artists, for example. Yeah. Well, what is it like to have a friend like that who's ride-or-die? I mean, what kind of relationship? Like, how does a ride-or-die friend compare to one who isn't a ride-or-die friend? Hmm.

Hmm. I really think it means just no matter what happens. So kind of like come heck or high water, if you're sick and thin, always there for you no matter what. Yeah. That's my takeaway too. Martha, that sounds right to you? Yeah. Yeah, that definitely sounds right. Ride or die. Yeah. This is a good term and it's had some twists and turns before it got to mainstream English and it

And it came, as you might guess, through hip-hop. And before that, it might have come from gang or biker culture. But it really shows up first in American language in the mid-1990s in hip-hop.

artists like Tupac Shakur had it in their songs. He's got a couple songs in 1996 where it shows up. And more famously, there's a song by a group called The Lox, L-O-X, called Ride or Die Bee, bee standing for a word that's impolite, and I can't say it in the air, but, you know, a coarse term for a woman. But

There's also a ride-or-die chick or ride-or-die girl or ride-or-die woman or ride-or-die gal. And a lot of times it's about your best friend or your romantic partner who will go with you to the end. She is going to ride shotgun with you or ride pillion on your motorbike. Pillion is, you know, to ride behind you. She'll go on your daily rounds, on a mission, on a road trip, into the sunset with you, whatever you're doing.

She's there with you. And a lot of these songs from the 90s maybe either literally refer to Bonnie and Clyde or indirectly refer to Bonnie or Clyde. The idea of these two people who are so in sync romantically and socially, their goals are so aligned that they're almost one person.

Well, that's awesome. I was joking around with my own partner. Are we talking about a friendship, a romantic relationship, or a biker gang?

Yeah. Why are the choices riding or death? You know, where are we riding? What are we riding on? Originally, it was literally about riding, maybe on a motorbike, maybe in a fantastic automobile. But one way or the other, you guys are going somewhere and you're going together and you're committed to each other. It's not a one-way commitment. It's both directions.

I mean, obviously, there's a lot of complications here. You will find some actually really thoughtful pieces that people have written about this, both in casual news articles and in professional journals, talking about the ride-or-die idea, what it means to say that someone is your ride-or-die, or your ride-or-die woman, or your ride-or-die chick. And it's actually really interesting. There's an article called, Why Ride-or-Die Culture Promotes Unhealthy Relationships.

Oh, my. Yeah. We'll have to check that out. Yeah. So it's a really, it's more than just a saying. Well, Patrick, thank you so much for calling with that question. And do give your ride or die our best. Yeah. I will do that. Thank you. That's super interesting. Really appreciate the background. Sure thing. Take care of yourself. Bye-bye. Take care. Bye. Yeah. So Bonnie and Clyde are the classic ride or die couple or Thelma and Louise, right? Sure.

Yeah, that was ride and die. Ride and die, right? Right. Well, we invite you to dial and smile. Give us a call, 877-929-9673. Come on.

We got an email from Vicki Todd in Lincoln, Nebraska, who said that her grandfather was a Missouri cattleman who had a few phrases that he would say if he was asked how he was doing. But one of the most puzzling was that somebody would say to him, how are you doing? And he would say, couldn't be better with less in all my life.

I'm trying to work that out myself. Couldn't be better with less. So it sounds like he's got just what he needs, but if he had less, he wouldn't be doing as well. Yeah. She said that he grew up in the Depression, so that may have something to do with it. Oh, the Depression. Boy, that was a time of creativity, right? Yes. May do. Yes.

Well, we couldn't be better than if you sent us an email and told us your thoughts and your ideas and your stories. We love hearing from you, no matter where you are in the world. That email is words at waywardradio.org.

Hello, you have a way with words. Hi, my name is Sam, and I'm here with my daughter Margo, who's one, and we're calling from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Well, hello, Sam and Margo. Well, Margo and I love books by the children's author Sandra Boynton, and we read her books all the time, and she uses a lot of animal sounds.

Yes, she does.

because we just have never heard a dog make that sound. And it really made us think, you know. So we're wondering if there's a more unique origin for the phrase bow wow for a dog sound. Right. That's a really good question. So let me ask you, is Margo old enough where she's imitating animals yet?

Yes. So that is something we've thought about because, you know, right now she's making a woof woof sound. It's a little confusing when there's also a bow wow sound. Yeah, I could see that being an issue because you kind of fixate on one sound at that age.

Good question. Let's help Margo out, Martha. Yeah, that is so interesting. So Margo says woof woof usually. Yep. And so she hasn't graduated to ruff ruff. No, not yet. Arf arf. Yeah, I was going to say, what about arf arf? No, there's a lot of them. There's yap yap. Right. And then there's growling. Yeah. Yep. Yeah.

Well, you know, what's interesting about all of these terms that we're using is that the oldest one is bow wow, which I think a lot of people are going to find really surprising. But it goes all the way back to at least Shakespeare's time. You know, in The Tempest, there's a line, hark, hark, bow wow, the watchdogs bark.

And he spells it, interestingly, B-O-W-G-H-W-A-W-G-H. And so that got sort of solidified early in the language. And the others that we were talking about, like ruff ruff and arf arf, come along much later, like in the 19th century. Right.

which I just find fascinating. That it should be so late for these other onomatopoeias to come along? Yeah, and in the meantime, bow-wow sort of got solidified in the language. So what you're saying is it's kind of this...

problem that we have a difficulty, I guess, explaining sounds in written language. And we know this with English because English is bad at representing sounds, isn't it? Yeah. When we hear a sound, how accurate can we get? Yes.

at putting it in print. And it turns out, sometimes not very accurate. Exactly. And Sam, I'm also thinking about my dog, who's a pretty big guy. And I'm trying to imagine him saying bow-wow. You know, they don't really make that kind of bee sound, do they? You know, that sort of labial, I mean, maybe? But what that bee represents, Martha, is that abrupt start to the sound, that kind of explosive start.

Yes, yes, exactly. Yeah, I can sort of see him, like, his flues, you know, the sides of his mouth, his flues fluttering maybe with the bow-wow. But, you know, it's really interesting to look at all the different dog sounds in other languages, too. I think there might be some that start with B. Italian is one. Oh, that's right. Bow-bow, right? Bow-bow, yeah, that's right. And there's some that start with B in Tamil. And Catalan is bup.

Also B. And there's other ones that start with G, which is almost, it's also abrupt, but it's not a plosive that starts on the lips. Yeah, like Greek is gav gav. Spanish is wow wow. German is vuff vuff. And Korean is mung mung. I mean, the mung mung in Korean sort of sounds like mung.

Well, those ones that start on the lips, like Icelandic, fafaf, that's happening on your lips again. Again, that's happening, that's your abrupt sound again, like the bow-wow. They're like the bow. So a lot of people around the world, a lot of languages are doing their best to represent the sound and everyone's kind of doing an okay job, but not a very good job. Yeah.

So, Sam, have you all gotten to roosters yet? Yeah, a little bit. We're going through all the animal sounds, and we definitely practiced the cock-a-doodle-doo. Okay. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's another one in Spanish. It's ki-ki-di-ki. Who is it? It's cocorico. Oh, is that... What is that? I don't...

Italian? I don't know, but that's my favorite one. I much prefer it to Cock-a-doodle-doo. Cock-a-doodle-doo! Well, I will leave you with my favorite dog barking episode.

onomatopoeia. And this is from Albanian and it's ham ham. Great. We'll learn that one next. Well, Sam, thank you for making us make all these sounds. Yeah. Thank you for the help. We're going to practice. All right. And you take care of Sam. Thank you too. All right. Bye-bye. Okay. Hello. You have a way with words. Hi there. My name is Tim Affolter. I'm

which is a Swiss name, and I'm calling about a word that my grandparents used. They were immigrants from Switzerland in the early 1900s. My grandmother was a pretty basic cook, and one of the dishes that she made for us was cubed up bread. I think it was probably the day before bread.

that she would fry in a frying pan with butter until it was kind of toasted on all sides and then she'd break eggs over the top and scramble them. So you'd get these crunchy little croutons inside scrambled eggs. It was really good. And I still make it to this day. She called it fogohoi.

Now, I'm not sure if that's just how my youthful ears interpreted it or whether that's the actual word, but it sounded like that. And I just wondered if you had any knowledge of a dish or a word from the Swiss area. I guess it would be Germany as well. Yeah.

That might explain what that means. And Tim, you said that your Swiss grandparents immigrated. Where are you now? British Columbia, straight north of Spokane, Washington. We're about a half an hour over the Canada-U.S. border in a little town called Castlegar. Oh, lovely. Got it. Yeah, good country up there. Yeah, it's beautiful. So this sounds like a really yummy dish, toasted bread bread.

Fried in a pan with butter, coated with egg. Your pronunciation is incredibly close to the actual word. You've kept it. After all these years, you've maintained the actual word. The Swiss German dish is Vogelheu. And it's spelled, believe it or not, with a V because the V sounds like an F. V-O-G-E-L-H-E-U.

And it means birds hay. Vogel means bird and H-E-U, hoy, means hay. It's etymologically related to the English word hay. You can actually see it in the spelling H-E-U.

- Thank you. - It's because it resembles a bird's nest or a pile of hay. One of my Swiss German dictionaries describes it as, quote, "A rustic dish made from bread, "cues, egg, milk, and onions." Did your grandparents put onions in it? - You know, they didn't, but I actually add onions

and actually a little green pepper to mine. I always thought I was bastardizing the dish, but that's how I actually like it, is with a little garlic salt and some onion in there, and it just tastes really good in crunchy little egg cubes. So it does pop up again and again and again, and they specifically talk about, just like French toast, this is how you use stale bread or scrap bread pieces. Right.

So that's what this is mainly for. You wouldn't take really quality bread. You would choose the random little bits of scrap bread from the end of a loaf or something. And there are other recipes by the same name, Vogelheu, again, V-O-G-E-L-H-E-U, in Germany and Austria and other parts of Switzerland. But the recipes can vary quite a bit.

They tend to have bread almost always, and they tend to have egg almost always, but sometimes they're very sweet. And sometimes they're actually far more like a dessert, and very much less like a...

an egg dish. They're almost always breakfast-y. Yeah, how cool that you have that linguistic heirloom. That's really cool, Tim. Yeah, it is. Tim, thank you for sharing your memories and your recipe with us. I guess we'll try that this weekend. Yeah, there you go. Take care now. Take care, Tim. Nice talking to you. Bye-bye. All right, bye-bye. You too. Bye-bye. My stomach is growling. 877-929-9673.

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You're listening to A Way With Words, the show about language and how we use it. I'm Grant Barrett. And I'm Martha Barnett. If you want a book that will lift you out of this world, I have one for you. It's called Orbital, and it's by Samantha Harvey.

It's a deeply imagined book about the moment-to-moment experience of living on a space station, circling 250 miles above the bright blue orb of Earth in the vast blackness of space.

And the author, Samantha Harvey, has been lauded as this generation's Virginia Woolf. And she's also been described as the Melville of the skies. And I can see why, because her book isn't so much science fiction. It's rather what she likes to call a space pastoral that is essentially nature writing, but about space.

And the result is a sensuous meditation on a single day's time in orbit on a craft that's traveling at 17,500 miles an hour, which means that, as she puts it, the whip crack of morning arrives every 90 minutes.

And this book is a great combination of both mundane and majestic. There are all the little adjustments to microgravity, the sinus headaches and sleeping in a bag tethered to a wall, drinking juice through a straw, and then the continuous hum of all the machinery. And all of this is unfolding against breathtaking views out the windows.

For example, when one of them goes out on a spacewalk, she ponders the sight below.

She writes,

And in fact, a lot of this book isn't so much about adventure, but emotions. For example, the four astronauts and two cosmonauts, before they go up there, they're warned about what happens when you have this repeated exposure to the seamless Earth.

She writes,

Despair. And then she writes that the inevitable result of that is this overwhelming feeling of needing, as she puts it, to protect this huge yet tiny earth. This thing of such miraculous and bizarre loveliness. And Grant, it just goes on like that. It's not a very long novel, but it's just sort of this meditation on being in space that's really gorgeous. It sounds so lovely. And so it's not...

Not nonfiction. It's fiction. Oh, it's definitely fiction. But she's watched thousands and thousands of hours of the broadcasts from the space station. And she deeply researched it. And, you know, it's not so much an adventure in outer space. Things do happen with the characters. But I keep coming back to the word meditation. It just took me out of this world for a while. And I really loved it.

There was something so perfect about that two-word description that she used that you mentioned space pastoral. That says so much to me. Yeah, it's a poetic take on what it's like to be in outer space. And I just thoroughly enjoyed it, as you can tell. Well, Martha, you've done it again. You put another book on my to-read stack.

Yay, I think you'll love it. I really do. I think I will, too. And that book, again, is Orbital by Samantha Harvey. We will link to that on our website at waywardradio.org. We'd love to know what you're reading and what you recommend to us. You can send those recommendations to words at waywardradio.org or leave us a message at 1-877-929-9673. Hello, you have a way with words.

Hello, this is Steve Davis from Rock Springs, Wyoming. Hey, Steve, we're glad to have you. I'm glad to be on the show. My nerd heart sings. What's it singing? I'm super excited. All kinds of stuff. I'm actually a singer-songwriter, so that's funny. Oh, that's cool. Oh, perfect. Yep.

Yeah. What's on your mind and your heart? So just briefly backstory from Green River, Wyoming, originally, which is a town where the freight trains come through. And as a result, in the summertime, we have a bunch of like teenagers, 21 year old people that ride the freight trains that stay in my hometown. And when I was 19, I one time decided to go on a trip.

a journey and I rode some trains with these kids to California. And then I ended up riding trains all across America for a couple of summers. Wow. And I picked up on some really cool lingo. Oh, I bet. Do share. Basically, the first one is a word called spanging, which is maybe S-P-A-N-G-I-N-G, I suppose. Yeah. But basically,

Yeah, but a lot of people would say it, and it just means going and holding a cardboard sign and looking for basically handouts or looking for spare change. Yeah, spanging. That one is used in a lot of the street cultures, right? Spanging as a combo of spare change, spange.

Oh, spange. Okay.

How old is it? Is it like a guy in Britain from 1872? Like, I'm tired of saying bad things. Or is this like in the 80s? You know, I don't know. I think the farthest I found it is in the 80s, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's older than that. Okay, sweet. And that was my kind of guess because I was like, it sounds a little more modern. Yeah, those blends, like blends aren't that new, but blends became really frequent in the 80s. So that solves that.

pretty briefly. And then the other term that I wanted to talk to you guys about is when you are waiting to ride a train, you have to kind of wait nearby. And there is somebody who works for one of the railroad companies that's looking out to try to stop you from trespassing on private property, basically. But he's referred to as the bull, he or she.

Right. And I mean, the bull is not a police officer or a security guard. It's like they're hired muscle, I suppose. They have a lot of other responsibilities, I'm sure. But one of their main ones is, hey, you can't be here, you know.

go somewhere else. So I was wondering if there's any other, like I've thought of stowaways on ships and I was like, is there someone that looks out for stowaways on ships? Are they referred to as the bull? Well, the bull bull actually has a broad use. It goes back to perhaps as early as the 1850s, but definitely to the 1890s. And it's used in definitely for train security, but also for police prison guards and detectives. And,

And occasionally for people who impersonate police officers in order to, you know, demand money from people as fake bribes. It may have actually started as slang among people who ride trains, the bull. And if you read some of Jack London's writings, if you know that writer, Jack London, he uses bull in his writing to refer to the railroad security.

That is awesome. And I'm writing down records on that particular bit of lingo. All right. Yeah. So that is, that is good to know. And I guess I didn't even think about prison, prison guard, like, Oh yeah. It's current. Yeah. Bull is current sling and many prisons. Awesome. I, I just wanted to know about that. And, um,

You know, just share with you guys some of those terminology that were used while I was on the road. Just briefly, like when you're riding trains, they have different names for different types of rides. Yeah. And I thought that that would be something that you just want to hear about is. For sure. The slower trains are the ones that are a mix of different types of cars, like an oil tanker, a grain. And that you would call that riding junk.

which was like the slow way. And if you say like, I'm writing junk back to Oregon or something, it means like, I'm going to take my time. I'm not really worried about getting there fast. And there's another one. The pusher engine is called the Cadillac because there's nobody in there and there's toilet and there's a fridge and

And I must also say, as a disclaimer, I was a respectful train rider. I was out there to learn different guitar techniques from different cultures and cities and write songs along the way. So I was gentle and kind. I wasn't crazy. Yeah. One thing, Steve, I love about you in particular is that as a singer-songwriter-musician, you

you kind of inherit this old tradition of the travelers from the 1940s, the people who rode the rails, because I feel like street performers and buskers inherit some of that spirit, you know, of earning money as they pass through other people's lives, of storytelling or moving from town to town. So there's kind of a continuation in what you do as a musician to that

life of the, how shall we call this, the irregular train traveler. Yeah. And I appreciate that because I did go looking for the story basically or looking for inspiration. And also hitchhiking is way more dangerous. And when you're on that, because you don't know who's going to pick you up, but on the train, you're alone and you're there with your journal and pen and you can write down stuff and

I mean, it was a really glorious experience. It was really awesome. And I did learn a lot of different types of finger picking techniques from buskers because they're some of the most talented performers in general.

And you go to New Orleans or New York and there's different dialects of music that you're picking up on and learning from the most talented street performers of that area. Thank you so much for sharing your memories and this language with us. I got to say, it sounds like you are living a great life, man. So rock on and keep strong and stay out there and do your thing. I will. And thank you so much for having me on the show. I enjoyed it. Bye-bye.

Before we go, I want to recommend a book, Martha, that I think really fits into the spirit of what Steve was talking about. It's called On the Fly, Hobo Literature and Songs, 1879 to 1941, edited by Ian McIntyre from 2018. Just a fantastic book. We'll link to that from the website. And on our website, waywardradio.org, you can find all kinds of ways to reach us, waywardradio.org slash contact.

We've talked before about very short town names, but there's also a very short river name. In Oregon, there's a river that's simply called D. The letter D. The letter D. Yeah.

And the Dee River is just 440 feet long. It used to hold the world record for the shortest river on Earth, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. But then that was contested by people backing the Rowe River in Montana. The Dee is 440 feet and the Rowe supposedly is 440.

201 feet, but there was some controversy over how you measure the distance of those rivers. And so now the Guinness Book of World Records does not list the shortest river in the world. But the D, is there a story there about why it's just called the D? I think it was part of a naming contest. Oh, I see. And somebody suggested that name. I think it's near Devil's Lake. So somebody just shortened it to D.

You can leave us a short or a long voicemail at 877-929-9673. We love talking about the names of anything, lakes and rivers and people and pets and books and you name it. Hi, you have a way with words. Hi, my name is Deb. I'm calling from Sheboygan, Wisconsin. I have a couple of questions about phrases my mother used to use.

My mom has been gone a few years now, but she was originally from Milwaukee. Her parents came from Slovakia. But one of the phrases she used was, wouldn't that just cork you? And I don't know where she picked that up. I don't know where it comes from, but my kids have adopted it. They loved it. So...

I was wondering about that one. Deb, in what kind of context would she say that? Wouldn't that just cork you? Oh, when she was annoyed or disappointed and, you know, nothing angry, but, you know, something like, oh, I...

I left work early to meet the repairman and he never showed up or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, what's happening there with that cork, that's a, that's an old verb meaning to cork something means to stop it up. Like you would put a cork in a bottle. Um, and basically it means, wouldn't that just shut you up? Wouldn't that just make you stop talking out of frustration or anger or surprise or fear or delight? And,

And so it's the same way that we might say to somebody, well, shut up when somebody says something to you that surprises you, right? Shut my mouth. Yeah. Somebody says, you know, I got into Harvard. And you're like, shut up, you know, because it's so surprising. You can't believe it. So you're just like, I mean, what?

I have no words for this. I don't know what to say. I'm shut up with surprise. I'm corked with surprise. Yeah, she was kind of outspoken and a little bit feisty, too. Oh, really? So she used that phrase a lot. Deb, do you know the expression, a real corker? Something that is maybe really exciting or exceptional or...

unusual. I have heard that expression. It's related. So something's a real corker. It's something that's so exceptional. You're wordless. You're speechless.

Because you're corked up, like a bottle is corked up and so nothing can come out. Oh, okay. Yeah, I just, I don't hear many people use that expression, so I was curious about it. So what else did your mom say? Well, she used this on me many, many, many times. She'd say, um...

You listen like a fish. Oh, really? So you kind of look at her with your mouth hanging open like a fish in a tank? I'm not sure. I mean, it was later on in her years she followed it up by, I'm going to get a tape recorder because you're not...

Paying attention to me. That is the perfect parental insult. You said she was from Slovakia? Yes. Well, her parents were. Her parents were. She was born in Milwaukee, yes. And she'd use words from all kinds of different languages that I didn't understand, and I don't understand Slovak. She usually used that to keep us kids from knowing what she was saying. Oh, that old trick. Yeah.

That old trick, yes. Well, Deb, thank you so much for calling and sharing these expressions. I love that your kids are now carrying on, wouldn't that just cork you? Oh, I love that too. Because it sounds so old-fashioned. I'm just imagining these pert little buggers running around using these old-fashioned expressions. I

And we're going to, yes, and we're extending it to the grandchildren. Absolutely. That's the way to do that. You take care now, Deb, and call us again sometime when you remember some more, all right? Thank you so much. I love your show very much. Our pleasure. Thanks, Deb. Take care. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Share your family heirlooms with us, 877-929-9673.

Away With Words senior producer is Stephanie Levine. Tim Felton is our engineer and editor, and John Chinesky is our quiz master. Go to waywardradio.org for all of our past episodes, podcast links, and ways to reach us. If you have a language, thought, or question, the toll-free line is always open in the U.S. and Canada, 1-877-929-9673. Away With Words is an independent nonprofit production of Wayward, Inc.

It's supported by listeners and organizations who are changing the way the world talks about language. Although we're not a part of NPR, we thank NPR stations throughout the United States that carry the show. And special thanks to our nonprofit's volunteer board. Michael Breslauer, Josh Eccles, Claire Grotting, Meryl Perlman, Bruce Rogo, Rick Seidenworm, and Betty Willis. Thanks for listening. I'm Grant Barrett. And I'm Martha Barnett. Until next time, goodbye. So long.