hash-house lingo queries

[Jonathan Lighter]

A "Mae West" used to be defined as a "sweet roll" (as in "roll in the hay"), and I guess a cruller is close enough.

As for "radio," "you can tune a radio, but you can't tune a fish."

I guess.

JL

"Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at UMR.EDU> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Cohen, Gerald Leonard"
Subject: hash-house lingo queries
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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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