Green mile; Vietnamese cooking

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

GREEN MILE

   "Green mile" supposedly slang for the "last mile" walked before death row.
   A Dow Jones check shows no hits outside of Stephen King.  I haven't read the book (the movie is due out soon).  Did King make up "the green mile"?
   The drama takes place in the south in 1932.  What does King know about this dialect?  Did he get it right in the novel?

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VIETNAMESE COOKING

   I've been looking into this.  The one essential element is the fish sauce.

NUOC MAM--the first Dow Jones hit appears to be the New York Times, 12 September 1977, pg. 17, col. 1, "nuoc mam sauce, sine qua non of Vietnamese cuisine."

NUOC CHAM--the Globe & Mail, 23 September 1981, pg. SB2, "Nuoc cham is a sauce used extensively in Vietnamese cooking and is basically a distillation of anchovies."