'30's phrases

[raiderrescuer]

http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/8/messages/14.html

There are three different pages with phrases or words from the 30's

 

[raiderrescuer]

Diner Phrases...

Not all are 30's but it's a good list...

Soup jockey: Waitress

Ladybug: Fountain Man

Bubble Dancer: Dishwasher

Angel: Sandwich Man

Gallery: Booth

Radar range: Microwave oven

Crowd: Three of anything (possibly from the saying "Two's company,
three's a crowd")

Bridge or Bridge party: Four of anything (from bridge the card game)

Eighty-six: "Do not sell to that customer" or "The kitchen is out of
the item ordered. To remove an item from an order or from the menu."
Article 86 of the New York State Liquor Code defines the
circumstances in which a bar patron should be refused alcohol
or '86ed'. The Soup Kitchen Theory: during the depression of the
1930s, soup kitchens would often make just enough soup for 85 people.
If you were next in line after number 85, you were '86ed'. The Eight
Feet By Six Feet Theory: A coffin is usually eight feet long and is
buried six feet under. Once in your coffin you've been 'eight by
sixed', which shortens to '86ed'.

Let it walk or Go for a walk or On wheels: An order to go, a takeaway
order. It's to go.

In the alley: Served as a side dish

Lumber: A toothpick

Chopper: A table knife

Blue-plate special: A dish of meat, potato, and vegetable served on a
plate (usually blue) sectioned in three parts. This can also refer to
the daily special.

Sea dust: Salt

Mike and Ike or The twins: Salt and pepper shakers

Hemorrhage: Ketchup

Paint it red: Put ketchup on an item

Lighthouse: Bottle of ketchup

Mississippi Mud or Yellow paint: Mustard

Warts: Olives

Java or Joe: Coffee

Draw one, a cup of mud: A cup of coffee

Pair of drawers: Two cups of coffee

Draw one in the Dark or Flowing Mississippi: A black coffee

No cow: Without milk

A blonde with sand: Coffee with cream and sugar

Hot top: Hot chocolate

Boiled leaves: Tea

A spot with a twist: A cup of tea with lemon

Yum Yum or Sand: Sugar

Gravel train: Sugar bowl

Sun kiss or Oh gee: Orange juice

Hug one or Squeeze one: A glass of orange juice

Moo juice or Cow juice or Baby juice or Sweet Alice: Milk

Canned cow: Evaporated milk

Billiard: Buttermilk

Throw it in the mud: Add chocolate syrup

Balloon juice or Belch water or Alka Seltzer: Seltzer, soda water

Hail: Ice

Hold the hail: No ice

Windmill Cocktail or Adam's ale or City juice or Dog soup: Glass of
water

Shoot from the south or Atlanta special: Coca Cola, probably a
reference to the fact that the headquarters of Coca-Cola is in
Atlanta, Georgia, and dragging anything is likely to get it muddy,
ie, darker, which would be the same result as adding chocolate syrup.
Carbonated drinks such as Coca-Cola were originally served by pouring
concentrated syrup into a glass and adding soda water, so they could
be made to whatever strength the customer preferred.

Drag one through Georgia: Cola with chocolate syrup

An M.D.: A Dr. Pepper

Fifty-five: A glass of root beer

Black and white: Chocolate soda with vanilla ice cream

White Cow: Vanilla milkshake

Shake one in the hay: Strawberry milkshake

Break it and shake it: Add egg to a drink

Creep: Draft beer

Life preservers: Doughnuts

Birdseed: Breakfast

Bailed hay: Shredded Wheat

Burn the British: Toasted English muffin

Looseners: Prunes, so called because of their supposed laxative
effect.

Graveyard stew: Milk toast, Buttered toast, sprinkled with sugar and
cinnamon, and dropped into a bowl of warm milk

Cackle fruit: eggs

Cow paste or Skid Grease or Axle grease: Butter

Smear: Margarine

C.J. Boston: Cream Cheese and jelly

Raft: Toast

Dough well done with cow to cover: Buttered toast

whiskey: Rye bread, as in rye whiskey

whiskey down: Rye toast, the 'down' part probably comes from the
action of pushing down the handle on the toaster

Shingle with a shimmy and a shake: Buttered toast with jam or jelly,
hence the reference to 'shake'.

Wreck `em: Scrambled eggs

Fry two, let the sun shine: 2 fried eggs with unbroken yolks

sunny side up: The eggs are fried without flipping them, so the yolk
looks just like a sun on white background.

Flop two: Two fried eggs over easy (Flop two) over easy Fried egg
flipped over (carefully!) and the yolk is still very runny. That
means the other side is cooked for a few seconds

(Flop two) over medium Turning over a fried egg and the yolk begins
to solidify

(Flop two) over hard Tried egg, flipped and cooked until the yolk is
solid all the way through

Deadeye: Poached egg

Customer will take a chance: Hash

Sweep the kitchen or Sweepings, or Clean up the kitchen: A plate of
hash

Mystery in the alley: A side order of hash

Adam & Eve on a raft: Two poached eggs on toast

Cowboy, western: A western omelette or sandwich

Zeppelin: Sausage

Blowout patches: Pancakes

Stack or Short stack: Order of pancakes

Vermont: Maple syrup, because maple syrup comes primarily from the
state of Vermont in the U.S.

A stack of Vermont: Pancakes with maple syrup

Machine Oil: Syrup

Noah's boy: A slice of ham (Ham was Noah's second son)

Noah' boy on bread: A ham sandwich

Pigs in a blanket: A ham (sometimes a sausage) sandwich

Radio: Tuna salad sandwich on toast (a pun on "tuna down," which
sounds like "turn it down," as one would the radio knob)

Radio Sandwich: Tuna Fish Sandwich

One from the Alps: A Swiss cheese sandwich

GAC: Grilled American cheese sandwich. This was also called "jack"
(from the pronunciation of "GAC")

Jack Benny: Cheese with bacon (named after a radio comedian)

High and dry: A plain sandwich without butter, mayonnaise, or lettuce

Rabbit food: Lettuce

Keep off the grass: No lettuce

Breath: Onion

Pin a rose on it: Add onion to an order

BLT: Bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich

Burn one: Put a hamburger on the grill

Hockey puck: A hamburger, well done

Chewed with Fine Breath: Hamburger with onions

Two cows, make them cry: Two hamburgers with onions

Burn one, take it through the garden and pin a rose on it: Hamburger
with lettuce, tomato and onion

On the hoof: Any kind of meat cooked rare

Pittsburgh: Something burning, toasted or charred, so called because
of the smokestacks once evident in Pittsburgh, a coal-producing and
steel-mill city. In meat cookery, this refers to a piece of meat
charred on the outside while still red within.

Bow-wow or Bun pup or Tube steak or Groundhog: a hot dog

Coney Island chicken or Coney Island: a hot dog, so called because
hot dogs were popularly associated with the stands on Coney Island.

Bloodhounds in the Hay: Hot dogs and Sauerkraut

Hounds on an Island: Franks and beans

Bullets or Whistleberries or Saturday night: Baked beans, so called
because of the supposed flatulence they cause.

Million on a platter: A plate of baked beans

Mayo: Mayonnaise

Quail: Hungarian Goulash

Mully, Bossy in a bowl: Beef Stew, so called because "Bossy" was a
common name for a cow.

Frenchman's delight: Pea soup

Frog sticks: French fries

Bowl of red: A bowl of chili con carne, so called for its deep red
color.

Wax: American cheese

Put out the lights and cry: An order of liver and onions "Lights" is
a term sometimes used for the edible, mainly internal organs of an
animal

Splash of red noise: A bowl of tomato soup

Paint a bow-wow red: Gimme a hot dog with ketchup

Bronx vanilla or Halitosis or Italian Garlic: Garlic

Dog biscuit: A cracker

Dog and maggot: Cracker and cheese

Cow feed: A salad

B and B: Bread and butter

Foreign Entanglements: Plate of Spaghetti

Beef Stick: Bone

First lady: Spare ribs, a pun on Eve's being made from Adam's spare
rib.

Irish turkey: Corned beef and cabbage

Zeppelins in a fog: Sausages and mashed potatoes

Angels on horseback: Oysters rolled in bacon on toast

Well dressed diner: Codfish

A Murphy: A potato, so called because of their association with the
Irish diet of potatoes, Murphy being a common Irish name

All hot: Baked potato

Wreath: Cabbage

Nervous pudding: Jello

Shivering Hay: Strawberry Jello

China: Rice pudding

Ice the rice: Rice pudding with ice cream

Sleigh Ride Special: Vanilla pudding

Magoo: Custard Pie

Eve with a lid on: Apple pie, referring to the biblical Eve's
tempting of Adam with an apple. The "lid" is the pie crust

Eve with a moldy lid: Apple pie with a slice of cheese

Put a hat on it: Add ice cream

Fly cake or Roach cake: Raisin cake or huckleberry pie

Bucket of cold mud: A bowl of chocolate ice cream

Houseboat or Dagwood Special: A banana split made with ice cream and
sliced bananas

Dusty Miller: Chocolate Pudding, sprinkled with powdered malt

Fish eyes or Cat's eyes: Tapioca pudding

 

[Sefton]

Now your cookin' with gas!

 

[Lincsong]

Earn an oodle by using your noodlelol

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

Yeah, and what of it?

(Boy, that sounded tough when somebody said that in a movie from the '30s... see how far it gets you now. )

 

[Hannigan Reilly]

i aint talkin, see?

 

[LizzieMaine]

I'll tell the world!

 

[The Wolf]

Ahh, nertz to you. That's banana oil!

The Wolf

 

[Katt in Hat]

Vater und Mutter, Great news; I have joined the Party!!! :beer:

 

[swinggal]

Heres' some good sites...I love Cab Calloways slang the best. Well, better go and 'bust a conk' now.

Twists, Slugs and Roscoes: A Glossary of Hardboiled Slang
http://www.miskatonic.org/slang.html

Swing era slang
http://www.leepresson.com/slang.html

 

[Cousin Hepcat]

http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/8/messages/14.html

There are three different pages with phrases or words from the 30's

GREAT thanks for posting Raiderrescuer & all, this is something I've been meaning to ask here but never remembered when online (Cab's are great but I never heard them in common use in the movies & most of them rarely even in the songs of the 30s-40s)