Airline Slang

[Laurence Horn]

>In a message dated 2/13/03 12:12:02 PM Eastern Standard Time,
>laurence.horn at YALE.EDU writes:
>
>>  >For a couple of years I did a weekly radio show with a woman who had been
>>   >a flight attendant. After the show we would always go out for "crew tea".
>>   >On a short layover, they were not allow to drink, so every airport
>>   >waitress knew how to serve crew tea -- tea cups and a tea pot full of
>>   >beer.
>>   >
>>   Ah, another ironym!  Some crew tea to wash down the Welsh rabbit and
>>   prairie oysters.
>
>I fail to see how "crew tea" is an ironym.  It is purely a "code word"
>(actually a "code phrase") to communicate to the waitress (or waiter?) a
>request to enter into a conspiracy to violate Federal Air Regulations
>91.17(a)(1),  The phrase "Crew tea" is not used ironically; it is used for
>the sake of deception.

I see this as a slippery slope.  It certainly COULD be used like
"Welsh rabbit"--what passes for 'tea' among the crew, not because
they don't know any better but because they do.  Similarly, "prairie
oyster" I've always thought of as just like "Welsh rabbit":  the poor
folks out there on the prairie don't know what a real oyster is, and
the closest they can come is a calf's testicle (or whatever).  We
know crew tea isn't actually a kind of tea, or that Welsh rabbit
isn't a kind (or preparation) of rabbit, or that prairies oysters
aren't oysters, but we still use these expressions as though we
thought they were; this is where the irony comes in.  (Imagine the
wink in each case.)

larry

>
>On the other hand "Virgin Mary", referring to a Bloody Mary minus the vodka,
>is an ironym. "Welsh rabbit" was also coined out of a sense of irony, as a
>commentary on the economic situation prevailing at one time in Wales.
>
>"Prairie oyster" is a euphemism.
>