hash-house lingo queries

Cohen, Gerald Leonard gcohen at UMR.EDU
Wed Jul 20 01:08:59 UTC 2005


  First, many thanks for the replies on "(be) ate up." Now a new matter: Earlier today (Tuesday), Bill Mullins reproduced an interesting article on railroad slang  which included a brief treatment of hash-house lingo almost as an afterthought.  I've rearranged the items alphabetically and indicated with two asterisks the ones whose origin is unclear to me.  For example,
why is "radio" a  tuna fish sandwich on toasted white bread? Why is "fifty-one" hot chocolate? Why is "Mae West" a long cruller? The list is:

Adam and Eve on a raft -- poached eggs on toast;  all the way -- French-fried potatoes with eggs; brown cow -- chocolate milk; burn a limey -- toasted English muffin; cowboy -- western omelet; cremate -- well done; draw one -- coffee; dynamite -- buttermilk; echo -- would you mind repeating that order? eight-one -- water; eight-six -- there is no more or a poor tipper." **fifty-one -- hot chocolate; gardenia -- onion; Go into the garden -- a portion of mixed vegetables **Grade "V" --  milk **Higgins -- tips; high and dry -- no French fries with the eggs; hold the grass -- no lettuce; hold the hail -- no ice; **Jack Benny -- grilled cheese and bacon sandwich; lumber -- toothpicks; **Mae West -- a long cruller; **radio -- tuna fish sandwich on toasted white bread; squeeze one -- milk. stack -- two scoops of ice cream; short stack -- two pancakes; shmear -- cream cheese; Tommy -- with tomato; with the shoes on -- order to be taken out; wreck an Adam and Eve on a raft -- scrambled eggs on toast;
[From: 'Railroads Have "Slanguage"'--in: The Newark Advocate (Newark, Ohio), May 21, 1966, p. 3, cols. 3-4]

Gerald Cohen



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