I'll go first.
New Hampshire Welcome Center sink- One of those sinks that activates when it senses your hands there, except the sensor is badly placed so that if you move your hands to the water to wash them, the sink turns off because it doesn't sense your hands there. Name comes from the location where I first experienced one of these sinks.
What are your interesting terms for various things?
"Hellgate Canyon" wind - as the name implies, the canyon of said name is a funnel for westward winds in the winter in Missoula. This knocks the wind chills to around 20 below at times on the very fringes of the canyon, and close to 25 below the further out from the canyon you go. But if you're in downtown Missoula, the buildings do buffer some of that wind, but it still can get cold as easily as the outskirts.
"Soup kettle" - no, not the actual kettle that you boil soup broth in. It's what I call in Missoula when the roads in the winter get very slushy. Add in the mix of glycol and de-icing salts that blend into the snow, that's the "soup kettle" kind.
"The Coffee Cup" - a reference to a small diner in Frenchtown, MT that was once named the Coffee Cup. It has that country style feel once you step in.
Amtrak seating – at a restaurant, you get sat down with another person or group you don't know that's across from you. (Amtrak no longer does this, but on my trip to London, the tour guide said it was standard at pubs.)
Trumper sticker – a bumper sticker that, well, you know.
Meerkat – this is when one of our cats stands up on two legs.
Lobster plate – a Maine license plate with a picture of a lobster (which isn't the standard design). Of course, the more typical lobster plates exist, too.
Chocolate Series D (or whatever series)–a particular version of the lowercase FHWA Series fonts that circulated prior to FHWA releasing the "vanilla" lowercase fonts as part of the 2000 MUTCD.
ODOT (or OTA) Special–A poorly-executed road sign, bad enough that a non-roadgeek might notice; displays a lack of competency in basic graphic design elements such as centering, margins, unnaturally compressed/stretched fonts, etc.
Trash patty–a processed chicken patty, especially one of the frozen ones from Tyson that looks like a disc-shaped puck. Used to distinguish from a chicken filet that has actual meat texture to it. Surprisingly good if that's what you're in the mood for. High cuisine it ain't, though.
Jomp–when one of our cats (who is a chonk) does a big running leap.
Put some English on it–to half-heartedly reboot a computer or other device in the hopes that will fix it, even when you know damn well it's unlikely to solve the problem. From the surname of a casino supervisor who often did this with slot machines.
Taco jackpot–1200 tacos. This arose from a misheard inquiry as to the meaning of a checkbox on a pre-printed casino form.
Cedric Dart, crycard–a credit card with a long-term balance. In my household, they both refer to a particular low-interest card that we can never seem to quite pay off all the way before some emergency requires us to take on debt again. Cedric Dart is an anagram of credit card and can be used to refer to an anthropomorphization of the US banking system as a whole; crycard originates from the abbreviation cr card that my wife filled in the blank with an additional y.
Some that I've used somewhat recently:
Clovis Avenue Badlands: The area between CA 99, CA 41 and CA 198 which generally is centralized to Clovis Avenue.
The J1 Bonecrusher: County Route J1 in San Benito County which is a reference to the infamously poor quality in-county.
Sierra Death Road: Blackrock Road above Balch Camp along the North Fork Kings River.
Merced River Canyon Grade: The 16 miles of CA 49 between Bear Valley and Coulterville. The only official name I've ever heard for it was the Bagby Grade, the more populist name I hear is the "Little Dragon." I find the Little Dragon name to be pretty lame given the Merced River Canyon is by more harrowing than US 129 north of Deall's Gap.
Illinois Flat: Referencing the Illinois is flat meme in reference to a place that has little to no terrain variance.
Bundle
When a cat sits down and folds its front legs underneath it, we call it "bundling."
Quote from: hbelkins on August 12, 2022, 09:50:38 PM
Bundle
When a cat sits down and folds its front legs underneath it, we call it "bundling."
Around here, the prevailing term is "loafing" (because the result is that the cat is shaped vaguely like a loaf of bread).
A "Frank Zappa thing" is my term for a mustache on the lower lip.
Also, when somebody blows a bubble with bubble gum and someone reaches over and pops it, I call it "doing a Wright brothers." This comes from an old Care-Free gum commercial featuring actors playing the Wright brothers.
A "burpoo" is a belch that tastes like poo.
A "grandpa mower" is my term for what is also known as a "reel mower"–a fully-manual lawn mower with two wheels and blades between them that spin around when you push it. So called because it's the type of mower many people's grandfathers (including mine) had. I have one of those mowers, but I no longer use it because the hydrangea in our front yard got so big that it's hard to maneuver a grandpa mower. Instead I have a Black & Decker weed-whacker that snaps into a four-wheeled base for use as a lawn mower.
Quote from: bandit957 on August 12, 2022, 11:05:34 PM
A "burpoo" is a belch that tastes like poo.
I don't want to know how you know that's actually what your belch tasted like.
Quote from: 1 on August 12, 2022, 08:45:30 PM
Amtrak seating – at a restaurant, you get sat down with another person or group you don't know that's across from you. (Amtrak no longer does this, but on my trip to London, the tour guide said it was standard at pubs.)
....
Amtrak isn't doing that in the dining cars at present, but they do have that sort of seating on the Acela. Every Acela rail car has some "conference tables" at which you usually wind up sitting with strangers (Acela seats are assigned/reserved in advance). I make a point of not sitting at those tables because they feel more cramped and because having someone facing you means less legroom.
Quote from: kirbykart on August 12, 2022, 04:48:58 PM
I'll go first.
New Hampshire Welcome Center sink- One of those sinks that activates when it senses your hands there, except the sensor is badly placed so that if you move your hands to the water to wash them, the sink turns off because it doesn't sense your hands there.
So, pretty much all sensor sinks are New Hampshire Welcome Center sinks. I'm not sure why the technology is so problematic. I would use foot pedals, but that might cause issues for people with limited mobility.
Anyway, on to my own:
Traffic scrum – When there's one truck trying to pass another one at a 0.5 mph speed differential and a line of cars forms behind. (I don't know why I use a rugby term here, I have no strong affinity for the game, but there you go.)
Inverse Jughandle - A loon with an island in it.
Note that this is different from a reverse jughandle, which is a loop after an intersection. And most of us should know that a forward jughandle is just a "regular" jughandle.
That's one of my few contributions to roadgeekdom, and it seems to have caught on as well as calling roadgeeks "viatologists."
For a while, I was trying to think of terms for different hotel typologies. "Interior-corridor," "exterior-corridor," "atrium," etc. sort of work, but they don't describe everything regarding the different types of configurations. What do you call hotels where the lower floors have exterior corridors and the upper floors have interior corridors? What about hotels where all the floors have interior corridors but some rooms, usually just on the first floor, also have exterior doors? Both of these are fairly common. There are also lots of different type of atrium configurations. Probably the most common is just taking an interior-corridor hotel and widening the hallway to create the atrium. But there are also some that are an exterior-corridor configuration forming four sides of a rectangle with a roof over the space in the middle of the rectangle (so about half the rooms face the atrium instead of facing outside). And then there are some that do the same thing but with an interior-corridor configuration. And then there are some that take the latter concept but put doors on both sides of the rooms on the first floor. One of my favorite hotels that I ever stayed in, the former Holiday Inn "Holidome" in Elk City, Oklahoma, used that last type of design, and it was a fun and enjoyable place.
Quote from: 1995hoo on August 13, 2022, 12:26:58 PM
Quote from: bandit957 on August 12, 2022, 11:05:34 PM
A "burpoo" is a belch that tastes like poo.
I don't want to know how you know that's actually what your belch tasted like.
Have you never had the experience where a burp brings up some flavoring into one's mouth? I'm more worried that he knows what poo tastes like.
Quote from: vdeane on August 13, 2022, 04:27:37 PM
Quote from: 1995hoo on August 13, 2022, 12:26:58 PM
Quote from: bandit957 on August 12, 2022, 11:05:34 PM
A "burpoo" is a belch that tastes like poo.
I don't want to know how you know that's actually what your belch tasted like.
Have you never had the experience where a burp brings up some flavoring into one's mouth? I'm more worried that he knows what poo tastes like.
The boldfaced is what I meant. Of course I've experienced that sort of burp. But I have no way to analogize it to a turd.
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20220813/46f25e3b0362d4bff9c6f95f7f51658f.jpg)
At a craft beer joint I frequent, Thursday is mystery can day, with bartender's choice for $4 each. A few years ago, a friend asked in a group chat if the $4 deal was "all day orca night thing" (the use of "orca" as opposed to "or a" was presumably due to voice-to-text). Said beers have been known as "orcas" ever since, as in "does anyone know what the orcas are tonight?" and "is anyone orcaing tonight?" (the latter is often abbreviated as a whale emoji followed a question mark).
Doubtage – when a company/group suddenly does things shrouded in mystery by withholding clear answers for simple questions.
(From doubt + outage)
Quote from: CtrlAltDel on August 13, 2022, 12:39:18 PM
Quote from: kirbykart on August 12, 2022, 04:48:58 PM
I'll go first.
New Hampshire Welcome Center sink- One of those sinks that activates when it senses your hands there, except the sensor is badly placed so that if you move your hands to the water to wash them, the sink turns off because it doesn't sense your hands there.
So, pretty much all sensor sinks are New Hampshire Welcome Center sinks. I'm not sure why the technology is so problematic. I would use foot pedals, but that might cause issues for people with limited mobility.
I don't know, I've used plenty of sensor sinks that work just fine, maybe I'm just lucky.
Quote from: bandit957 on August 12, 2022, 11:05:34 PM
A "burpoo" is a belch that tastes like poo.
I take two diabetic medications that at times cause this. Maybe one of few times pooing is not, in fact, cool.
Quote from: 1995hoo on August 13, 2022, 12:26:58 PM
Amtrak isn't doing that in the dining cars at present, but they do have that sort of seating on the Acela. Every Acela rail car has some "conference tables" at which you usually wind up sitting with strangers (Acela seats are assigned/reserved in advance). I make a point of not sitting at those tables because they feel more cramped and because having someone facing you means less legroom.
Funny ... on the trip my brother and I took a few years ago, we got seated with the same couple three times.
NOITY: Not Of Importance To You - an acronym used primarily when you're talking about something with someone but then another person overhears what you are talking about and you know they wouldn't get it or would find it irrelevant. Especially useful for inside jokes. Can be slightly rude if used improperly. Example:
"What's that viatology thing you're talking about again?"
"NOITY!"
"Ok, gotcha."
"Doohickey" was, when I was a kid, the thing you used to adapt coax to the old 300-ohm connector. It's evolved/expanded to basically mean any sort of adapter to connect two differering things.
"Doing a you" is specifically for my mother. We have differing driving styles, and she does some things I feel dickish doing (turning into incorrect lane would be an example). When I do one of those things, it's "pulling a you" if she's in the car, or "pulling a mom" if she's not.
Every smoking accessory I've ever owned has had a name of one kind or another.
My cousin from Central Illinois (when we were both around 10 years old) introduced his word for a doohickey: "doojumajajy". Primary emphasis on 1st syllable; secondary emphasis on the 4th. All the J's are English J's. I should have asked him more about it at the time. I've never heard the term since then.
Almost everyone has heard all sorts of euphemisms for body parts. Two of the more unusual ones I've heard came from my maternal grandmother, who referred to male accoutrements as a "tiddlyboo" and female tits as "medals."
I call ground beef that's packaged in this manner "tubesteak"
(https://www.aldi.us/fileadmin/_processed_/7/b/csm_73_-lean-ground-beef-desktop-pdp_f48a41be9a.jpg)
[yes, I'm aware of "tubesteak's" more common definition"]
Braunschweig. I use this German city as a minced oath for "bullshit" a lot, as its plate code is BS. Brescia in Northern Italy could be used in the same way.
Quote from: CNGL-Leudimin on August 16, 2022, 01:54:22 AM
Braunschweig. I use this German city as a minced oath for "bullshit" a lot, as its plate code is BS. Brescia in Northern Italy could be used in the same way.
I use "Bolshevik" for that.
I used to call high-mast lights "rec field lights", because they reminded me of the ones you would see at an outdoor recreational field (i.e. baseball diamond/football gridiron); my first experience was going to St. Louis on I-55/I-64 (https://www.google.com/maps/@38.6157384,-90.1737659,3a,75y,289.08h,104.04t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sdqpqCeUwhafIVAAiGS3hLg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192) (and I-70 as well), and as soon as I spotted them, I felt like I was at a Little League game. When the lights were first set up on the Dan Ryan during its reconstruction in the 90s, I jokingly called it the world's longest rec field, but now I imagine even that would be no match for the many Houston freeways that are lit up like this.
I'm fond of saying "cluster foxtrot" to avoid using a profanity while conveying the same sentiment.
A substitute my great aunt used to use for a certain vulgarity: Sound View Beach
Parking Long Island style: One thing I noticed in parking lots on Long Island is that cars tend to all park with their noses facing the same way. That is, when cars pull into back-to-back parking spaces. they always pull through the first space to the 2nd space so that they look like they're backed into the space they're in.
Quote from: Henry on August 16, 2022, 10:23:05 AM
I used to call high-mast lights "rec field lights", because they reminded me of the ones you would see at an outdoor recreational field (i.e. baseball diamond/football gridiron); my first experience was going to St. Louis on I-55/I-64 (https://www.google.com/maps/@38.6157384,-90.1737659,3a,75y,289.08h,104.04t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sdqpqCeUwhafIVAAiGS3hLg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192) (and I-70 as well), and as soon as I spotted them, I felt like I was at a Little League game. When the lights were first set up on the Dan Ryan during its reconstruction in the 90s, I jokingly called it the world's longest rec field, but now I imagine even that would be no match for the many Houston freeways that are lit up like this.
I'd call them "Mass lights" because I always saw them in Massachusetts (rarely in CT) in the area of Mass Pike interchanges (such as the very end of I-84) and on I-91 in the Springfield area.
My brother and I have used the term "Hobby Lobby Guitar". That is for a instrumental piece using a soothing, easy listening guitar part (usually sliding a lot of the chord changes) in such a way you can visualize yourself shopping at a Hobby Lobby while listening to the song.
We also referred to the Upper Bay of the New York Harbor as "The SIF Water". That's because it is traversed by the SIF (Staten Island Ferry).
One that came as mistake, "Coats". These are colored jersey tops, otherwise known as alternate jerseys, worn by baseball teems in lieu of their normal home whites or road greys. The term comes from my brother playing Ken Griffey Jr. baseball on Nintendo 64 and seeing the team take the field in alternate uniforms, and him being 8 at the time thought the whole team was wearing coats.
"Dogged" is a term we came up with if you have a small dog in your lap. I can't get up, I am dogged.
Anyone with a shaved head and a big beard is "Bob Newbie" from The Sims.
I know there are more.....
"Bunchup" or "bunched up" to refer to a traffic jam. (For example: "I-70 near the stadiums is looking a little bunched up right now." Or, "There's a bit of a bunchup on I-35." )
"Clank" for when a basketball player misses a free throw. ("He clanked it." )
"Waterpark season" to refer to the summer.
During the Fourth of July, "pre-fireworks" and "post-fireworks" to refer to the fireworks that other people in the area shoot off before the start of an official display, and after the end of it, respectively.
"The wasteland months" to refer to January and February (and sometimes early March), that long, cold stretch after Christmas and before spring arrives.
1. I'm sure I got this from some comedy routine or something years ago, but I don't really know. Anyway, the term caught on in my family long ago, and among a few friends as well.
These are called "whumpit rolls'":
(https://res.cloudinary.com/general-mills/image/upload/q_auto,w_690/products/00018000002368_C1C1_s409_628e6105-2e6a-4de1-a577-ea362367d6de.jpg)
That's because, to open the container, you whump it on the edge of the countertop.
2. My wife and have two different terms for cuddling up in bed. "Snuggling" is the normal term that everyone is familiar with. "Nuggling" is a portmanteau of "naked snuggling".
3. "Acapulco style" is singing that's not accompanied by any musical instruments. This started in high school, when someone in the church choir misunderstood the director saying "a capella" as "Acapulco". (Similarly, someone once misunderstood "airy descant" as "eerie death chant".)
4. Rap is called "yo yo music". This started with my wife, probably twenty years ago or more, when she would gripe about her sister's taste in music. You know, all those guys shouting yo yo! and such. We both still use the term.
5. I didn't realize until just now that "wayback" is a term used by more than just my parents to refer to the area behind the rear seat of a hatchback or station wagon.
I know there are more, but those are all I can think of at the moment.
Quote from: KCRoadFan on August 30, 2022, 06:52:47 PM
"The wasteland months" to refer to January and February (and sometimes early March), that long, cold stretch after Christmas and before spring arrives.
Conversely, I always call September-December the "Ber Months". Somehow the start of the Bers feels festive, even though there is a thousand miles difference between September 1st and December 25th. Plus, when the Bers hit, I feel like the year is finally old and winding down despite there still being 4 months left.
Quote from: ethanhopkin14 on August 30, 2022, 06:57:29 PM
Quote from: KCRoadFan on August 30, 2022, 06:52:47 PM
"The wasteland months" to refer to January and February (and sometimes early March), that long, cold stretch after Christmas and before spring arrives.
Conversely, I always call Saptember-December the "Ber Months". Somehow the start of the Bers feels festive, even though there is a thousand miles difference between September 1st and December 25th. Plus, when the Bers hit, I feel like the year is finally old and winding down despite there still being 4 months left.
There's also a lot of "brr" during the -ber months. :awesomeface:
I used to say "downscalator" for an escalator that goes to a lower level.
entexased: the state of being contained within a Texas-shaped area. Used most obviously to refer to actual Texas, but it could also refer to e.g. being inside a Texas-shaped swimming pool. When one has this condition removed from them, they are disentexased.
I combined the words awesome and optimal to create "awesomal" It means the most efficient awesome
Branson gear – when your vehicle has to downshift twice just to maintain something resembling highway speed.
Quote from: kphoger on August 30, 2022, 06:54:10 PM
....
5. I didn't realize until just now that "wayback" is a term used by more than just my parents to refer to the area behind the rear seat of a hatchback or station wagon.
I know there are more, but those are all I can think of at the moment.
We called that the "back back" because we picked it up from a kid who lived down the street who called it that. I had forgotten about that until I saw your post.
Quote from: zachary_amaryllis on August 14, 2022, 01:50:37 PM
Quote from: bandit957 on August 12, 2022, 11:05:34 PM
A "burpoo" is a belch that tastes like poo.
I take two diabetic medications that at times cause this. Maybe one of few times pooing is not, in fact, cool.
I wasn't bothered by |bandit957| knowing that his burps taste like poo. After all, flavor is mostly smell, and we've all smelled poo. No, what bothered me is that his burps taste like poo
to begin with.
And now I'm even more bothered, because it apparently isn't just him...
Quote from: kphoger on August 31, 2022, 11:25:46 AM
Quote from: zachary_amaryllis on August 14, 2022, 01:50:37 PM
Quote from: bandit957 on August 12, 2022, 11:05:34 PM
A "burpoo" is a belch that tastes like poo.
I take two diabetic medications that at times cause this. Maybe one of few times pooing is not, in fact, cool.
I wasn't bothered by |bandit957| knowing that his burps taste like poo. After all, flavor is mostly smell, and we've all smelled poo. No, what bothered me is that his burps taste like poo to begin with.
And now I'm even more bothered, because it apparently isn't just him...
I worked for someone who was extremely diabetic and was on anti-rejection drugs because he'd had a kidney transplant. I don't know what kind of oral medications he was on, but he would occasionally burp and the smell was awful. I can only imagine what it tasted like for him.
Meanwhile, throw-up burps or "puke burps" as I used to call them, are fairly common and probably not a whole lot more pleasant.
Quote from: webny99 on August 31, 2022, 12:27:51 PM
Meanwhile, throw-up burps or "puke burps" as I used to call them, are fairly common and probably not a whole lot more pleasant.
I used to call those pizza burps as a kid. I don't know why as I didn't even eat pizza as a kid.
Quote from: SectorZ on August 31, 2022, 03:12:51 PM
Quote from: webny99 on August 31, 2022, 12:27:51 PM
Meanwhile, throw-up burps or "puke burps" as I used to call them, are fairly common and probably not a whole lot more pleasant.
I used to call those pizza burps as a kid. I don't know why as I didn't even eat pizza as a kid.
My sister and I would call those "Cereal Burps" or "Cheerio Burps" I guess because we both ate a lot of Cheerios as kids so the burps tasted like that...
If one of the cats passes gas, it's called "catulence."
Bumping this because I remembered another own term: a time zone boundary gets called a "spacetime rift" by me.
The moment a daylight savings change takes effect is "time travel" here. ("Oh, it's only 3am now, not 4, due to time travel.")
Gordonsviller [adjective]
A roundabout with at least one entrance that has a stop sign. Name comes from the closest one to me.
Mechanicsville [adjective] [definition #2]
When a road gets re-aligned almost right next to the old alignment, like Bypass US 360 and Business US 360 in the namesake town.
Kroeg (pronounced "krookh" ): a redneck dive bar. The term is just the Afrikaans word for bar.
Quote from: Scott5114 on December 28, 2022, 07:04:01 PM
The moment a daylight savings change takes effect is "time travel" here. ("Oh, it's only 3am now, not 4, due to time travel.")
It would catch on more widely, if only you weren't the only one awake when the time change actually happens. :-P
Reddi-wip and other such fake cream in a can were known as pisht in my childhood home. My siblings continue using the term. It's onomatopoeic.
Quote from: Hunty2022 on December 28, 2022, 07:21:00 PM
Mechanicsville [adjective] [definition #2]
When a road gets re-aligned almost right next to the old alignment, like Bypass US 360 and Business US 360 in the namesake town.
Coincidentally, this term also applies to Mechanicsville, Iowa (https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9044808,-91.2542364,2918m/data=!3m1!1e3). When that section of US 30 was first paved in 1927, the highway was moved about 1000 feet to the south to the other side of the railroad tracks to eliminate two at-grade crossings.
Quote from: kphoger on December 29, 2022, 01:28:25 PM
Quote from: Scott5114 on December 28, 2022, 07:04:01 PM
The moment a daylight savings change takes effect is "time travel" here. ("Oh, it's only 3am now, not 4, due to time travel.")
It would catch on more widely, if only you weren't the only one awake when the time change actually happens. :-P
Hey now, I know two other people that are awake at that time! :-P