I figured it would be fun to come up with some alternate slang terms and phrases, along with a description of how they came to be and using it in a sentence. I'll try to keep adding to this over the next while, feel free to add your own. The focus is on post-1900 stuff but if some pre-1900 terms get in it's no problem.
Chicago spelling bee champ: term for a poor speller, used particularly often by newspaper staff.
This phrase stems from the Chicago Tribune's long-standing practice of using simplified spelling: as of today the paper still uses Colonel McCormick's guidelines and writes frater, thoro, thru, and other idiosyncratic simplifications. Though the Tribune has less influence on Chicago kids' spelling than it did in pre-Internet times, the term has stuck around.
"The word processor's spell checker was a great help to Fred: he's an OK writer but a real Chicago spelling bee champ."
Trusting in Providence: to embezzle money and/or hide it in a secret account. Especially used for government officials.
Since the Banking Reform Act of 1872, the Free Republic of Rhode Island has been notorious in North America as a place where the rich and powerful can hide ill-gotten wealth in numbered bank accounts. The first use of "trusting in Providence" as an ironic term for this was in the Boston Globe in 1913: now it is often used in cases of corruption that don't involve Rhode Island banks at all.
"Mayor McHenry is going to prison: turns out she's been trusting in Providence to the tune of a million Mex dollars."
Kneading the margarine: term for work percieved as pointless busywork that is necessary to meet government or internal business regulatory standards.
To this day, Minnesota and Wisconsin still require margarine and other non-dairy butter substitutes to be sold undyed, with a separate dye pack (whether of Yellow #5 or of natural dyes like tumeric) be mixed in by the customer to achieve a proper yellow color. This sop to the dairy lobby has been analogized by Upper Midwesterners to represent all kinds of excess paperwork and double-checking required by regulators.
"Sorry I'm late, had a late night kneading the margarine. Boss said we needed paper copies of everyone's hiring contract filed in triplicate. They're on the computer but apparently that's not enough for the IRS..."
Chicago spelling bee champ: term for a poor speller, used particularly often by newspaper staff.
This phrase stems from the Chicago Tribune's long-standing practice of using simplified spelling: as of today the paper still uses Colonel McCormick's guidelines and writes frater, thoro, thru, and other idiosyncratic simplifications. Though the Tribune has less influence on Chicago kids' spelling than it did in pre-Internet times, the term has stuck around.
"The word processor's spell checker was a great help to Fred: he's an OK writer but a real Chicago spelling bee champ."
Trusting in Providence: to embezzle money and/or hide it in a secret account. Especially used for government officials.
Since the Banking Reform Act of 1872, the Free Republic of Rhode Island has been notorious in North America as a place where the rich and powerful can hide ill-gotten wealth in numbered bank accounts. The first use of "trusting in Providence" as an ironic term for this was in the Boston Globe in 1913: now it is often used in cases of corruption that don't involve Rhode Island banks at all.
"Mayor McHenry is going to prison: turns out she's been trusting in Providence to the tune of a million Mex dollars."
Kneading the margarine: term for work percieved as pointless busywork that is necessary to meet government or internal business regulatory standards.
To this day, Minnesota and Wisconsin still require margarine and other non-dairy butter substitutes to be sold undyed, with a separate dye pack (whether of Yellow #5 or of natural dyes like tumeric) be mixed in by the customer to achieve a proper yellow color. This sop to the dairy lobby has been analogized by Upper Midwesterners to represent all kinds of excess paperwork and double-checking required by regulators.
"Sorry I'm late, had a late night kneading the margarine. Boss said we needed paper copies of everyone's hiring contract filed in triplicate. They're on the computer but apparently that's not enough for the IRS..."