NTMP #32: An inside jobby
Please don't butt diablo me.
New-to-me Phrases, September 11, 2022
Sauce-box * Katrina Babies * Butt diablo * A happy state of hagdom * Squirrelometer * Jobby * Tom Hamburger
The Phrases, With Context
This week we have two phrases from the UK, squirrels in squoaf mode during splooting season, and delicious, delicious menopausal rage.
We have a short list this week, so I pulled a bonus phrase from the extensive archives here at NTMP Central (aka a Google doc).
1. Sauce-box
I came across this Mental Floss list of Victorian slang terms while writing last week’s newsletter, and this slang word for “mouth” was my favorite.
HOWEVER, I did notice this while writing this week’s entry:
Shoot into the brown
To fail. According to Forrester, "The phrase takes its rise from rifle practice, where the queer shot misses the black and white target altogether, and shoots into the brown i.e., the earth butt."
I mean, “shoot into the brown” is sort of amusing without context, but EARTH BUTT? OMG IT’S SO GREAT.
“Gas pipes” for “especially tight pants” is also pretty awesome.
2. Katrina Babies
Katrina Babies is the name of a beautiful essay by Dauté Martin in the NYT (gifted link) and a documentary by Edward Buckles, Jr. on HBO released in August 2022.
Both the essay and the film explore the impacts of trauma and grief on now-grown children (Katrina babies) after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005, and the gentrification that arrived in its wake, displacing many Black residents.
I also highly recommend Spike Lee’s documentary When the Levees Broke and the fictional series Treme is a visual epic novel and love letter to the city and its people.
3. Butt diablo
My friend Sarah sent me a screenshot of someone trying to type “butt dial” but autocorrect chose “butt diablo” instead. She added that her son loves hot sauce and is no stranger to a different sort of butt diablo.
In case you didn’t know, “diablo” is Spanish for “devil.”
(The screenshot was from a private IG but if anyone wants to claim credit for this, I’m happy to update this post.)
4. A happy state of hagdom
Author Caitlin Moran describing perimenopause thusly in The Guardian:
“Even Moran, who at 45 is peri-menopausal rather than fully at the eye of the storm, says she can feel something changing as the softening effects of oestrogen recede. ‘It’s like coming down off an E. All that kind of loving forgiveness … once it’s gone, you suddenly feel as rageful and unwilling to help people as men have all their lives. There does tend to be a sobering bit when you think: ‘Hang on, have I played myself for a mug? All those things I did, there’s no medal for it. All the time I was making a lovely cosy house, my male colleagues were putting money into ISAs.’’ Moran has, she says, now stopped running around after everyone quite as much; she takes her pleasure in friends, gardening, her dog and what she calls a happy state of ‘hagdom’.”
100% relatable content.
In fact, here’s another great quote from this piece, by author Sam Baker:
“‘If you look at all the things we have put up with or enabled, however you want to put it – doing more and being paid less; taking the lion’s share of the emotional and domestic labour, taking more responsibility for children – a lot of the women I spoke to said they got to around 50 and just thought: ‘Fuck this.’’ Yet the post-menopausal prize, she writes, is emerging with a new fearlessness and a ‘righteous fury’ at injustices she had previously let slide.”
I recommend reading the entire piece.
Relatedly, I started reading Equal Partners: Improving Gender Equality at Home by Kate Mangino, which feels especially relevant during these unprecedented times during which, as Anne Helen Petersen wrote, “Other countries have social safety nets; the U.S. has women.”
5. Squirrelometer
My friend Lindsay texted me this tweet, saying “For your child who doesn’t read your newsletter.” WHICH ONE, LINDSAY?
As an aside, I also learned what the #wawx hashtag means - Washington weather (#wx means weather). Neat!
P.S. ILWX SUX*
*Except for maybe four glorious weeks in the spring and fall, when the humidity falls away, the sun shines, the skies are blue, and there’s a gentle breeze and no mosquitoes out for blood.
6. Jobby
This is Scottish slang for poop and I am completely charmed by it.
7. Tom Hamburger
This phrase is from December 2021 and it’s the name of a reporter at the Washington Post. I am sorely disappointed that his profile pic at the paper does not show him enjoying a smashburger, or wearing one of those Halloween hamburger hats. (Do yourself a favor and do a Google image search for “hamburger hat.”)
I think I could happily title this phase of my life "A Happy State of Hagdom." And with that, I am off to read the entire piece. Have a great week!