Musica ranchera; In heat of battle; Hop & Pop and skydiving slang

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

MUSICA RANCHERA

   Most of the Google hits are Spanish, of course, but my wife Jennifer Lopez
informs me this is a Selena-type phenomenon.
   From the WALL STREET JOURNAL, 9 April 2004, pg. B1, col. 2:

_Death of a Latino Idol Wakes Up Marketers_
By MIRIAM JORDAN
_Paramount, Calif._
   PRACTICALLY nobody in mainstream America had heard of Mexican-American
singer Adan Sanchez until 15,000 people mobbed a Los Angeles-area church last
week for his memorial service.
   Killed in a car crash in late March while on tour in northwestern Mexico,
the 19-year-old singer of Mexican country-style melodies, known as _musica
ranchera_, had a fierce following among teenagers in Hispanic towns and varrios
in California, Texas and other Southwedstern states.  Since his death, his fans
have placed hysterical calls to radio stations and held public vigils on both
sides of th border--catching much of the non-Hispanic world by surprise.

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IN THE HEAT OF BATTLE, THINGS ARE RARELY AS BAD AS THEY LOOK

   Ralph Peters is/was a military officer who writes a column for the NEW
YORK POST.  From the NEW YORK POST, 9 April 2004, pg. 31, col. 4:

   One old soldier's maxim applies: In the heat of battle, things are rarely
as bad as they look.  The victory belongs to the side that has the greater
strength of will.  Just don't quit.


   A search for "in the heat of battle" results in "things are said/done that
you don't mean."  Not "rarely as bad as they look/seem."  I'm sure Peters is
indeed citing an old soldier's maxim, but it's just not mainstream yet.

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HOP AND POP

   Not a new brand of Popik hops sold at Stop & Shop.
   From the WALL STREET JOURNAL, 9 April 2004, pg. W10, col. 5:

   Among the most popular items being co-opted by adults: $99 "Hop and Pop"
seats, brightly colored, cubed and cylinder-shaped foam stools that don't take
up much room.

HOP AND POP--5,050 Google hits, 789 Google Groups hits
  (many for "hip-hop and pop" music)


   Skydiving slang has been a little neglected.  "Whuffo," for example,
doesn't appear in the CASSELL DICTIONARY OF SLANG.   Neither does POP (Parachutist
Over Phorty).
   Lexicographers need to get out a little.


(GOOGLE GROUPS)
From: Nev Delap (nev at pcug.org.au)
Subject: Re: SKYDIVING SLANG summary
View: Complete Thread (4 articles)
Newsgroups: rec.skydiving
Date: 1995/04/30

G'day Jerry,

Here is my two bobs worth of corrections. Some of this might be particular to
Australian Skydiving but I think most will be applicable everywhere.

brainlock - also refered to as a brain mal (malfunction), is used to refer to
a skydiver who goes blank during a skydive, forgetting what the next point is
for example. Usually caused by not paying enough attention on a dirt dive.

dead spider - is used when refering to someone who goes low, but not because
they have gone low. It is because of the body position that they assume in
order to fall slowly to get back up to the formation - a negative arch, arms and
legs out cupping the air.

diaper - also used for squares but less often.

dirt alert - used by experienced jumpers, in particular for freestyle.
Usually students are not allowed to use them (in Oz anyway), because they are
supposed to be learning to use there visual alti rather than relying on their
audible one.

floater - called a floater because being on the outside of the plane they
initially have to fall slow enough that they do not go low on the base of the
formation - which will leave the aircraft after the floaters but before the
divers. Floater also refers to someone who just falls slow because they are light.
They usually have shit put on them because people prefer fast fall-rates.

funnel - jumpers are not flung around the sky. A funnel refers to jumpers
falling into the burble (dead air, turbulence above a person in freefall) of
jumpers below so that a bunch of people fall down in a heap and have to fly out of
the funnel to get into clean air. Eg - if you fly under a formation it will
funnel on top of you because you are stealing their air.

hop 'n' pop - isn't neccessarily from a low-altitude. A hop and pop is just a
jump where the person opens their parachute soon after opening. for example
you can do a hop and pop from 14,000' and just dippy doo around, or do 'cross
country' (the idea of which is to get out as far away as possible from the DZ
and still get back).

lurking - this one may only apply to our DZ where lurking means just jumping
with someone else but not being part of 'the jump'. Eg lurking on a 4-way
means jumping out with the 4-way and just watching it while staying close by, or
you can lurk on a Tandem - just going out and watching it.

pud - also called a hackey as in hackey sack (tell me if I've spelt hackey
wrong!).

slug - also called a truck, ie big, slow and low performance.swoop - also
applies to landing where the person flys in fast and upon flaring gains height
again.

whuffo - unless asked what it means I don't think any real skydiver uses this
word and I wish it would be abandoned!

zoomy - also means a fast landing in nil-wind conditions. New ones:

Cream in - to land badly. All the Aussie skydivers I know use this phrase.

To cream oneself - to have a really good jump, get a FFF (freefall fat), or
for the ladies: get all wet and gooey!

Good luck, I there are heaps more that I can't think of off hand.

JFS (you can put this one in too since it is popular all over the world,
Just, Fucking, Skydive!)

Nevster
Goulburn DZ
New South Wales
Australia


(GOOGLE GROUPS)
From: Jerry Dunn (jerryd at rain.org)
Subject: SKYDIVING SLANG summary
Newsgroups: rec.skydiving
Date: 1995/04/28

Hi,

Thanks very much to everyone who sent skydiving slang for my book, to
becalled "Idiom Savant: Slang As It Is Slung" (Fall 1995, Simon &Schuster).  Here's
the summary I said I'd post.

No doubt I've made errors, especially in usage.  Maybe you can add
examplesentences to some definitions, to show how the terms are properly used.

Please send any corrections, additions, or examples to me by e-mail:
jerryd at rain.org.Thanks so much again!  You're a very helpful, fun group of people.

Cheers,
Jerry Dunn

The summary:
air bath n.  a bad skydive, or one performed simply to wake up and getone's
"knees in the breeze."  Rel. hangover cure:  early morning skydiveafter a night
of partying.
(...)


(GOOGLE) ("Leaping Lexicon")
http://www.parametric.co.nz/skydive/fileinclude.asp?m=s_&f=skydive&
fname=skydivez.htm
Hop-and-Pop
Low level jump done usually on cloudy days, where a jumper opens the
parachute immediately after exit
Horny Gorilla
Yet another fun formation where skydivers form a circle, then throw their
legs into the middle of the formation and link them together, then let go hand
grips, thus falling with their backs to earth. For some unexplained reason most
skydivers also pull funny faces at this point.
Meat Bomb
Colloquial term for a student jumper, particularly a first freefaller.
Pop
Acronym for Parachutists Over Phorty (Skydivers generally can't spell very
well)
Whuffo
Non-Skydiver - characterised by the immortal phrase "whuffo you wanna jump
outta a perfectly good airplane?"


(GOOGLE)
Skydiving Glossary
... Common slang for a skydiving center, also DZ. Dytter. ... Skydiver slang
for the entire
parachute, including main and reserve canopies and the harness/container. ...

www.dropzone.com/safety/resources/ handbook/gloss2.shtml - 44k - Cached -
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