This just about became a threadjack for Mary’s “I’ll give you a medal … ” post But propriety seized me just before I hit post when I realized this was probably a post in it’s own right.
It all started when I finally clicked the urban dictionary link to taconite curtain that Adam provided: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Taconite%20Curtain
I have to kick myself that that actually qualifies as “urban” but it’s hilarious and very well written, folks. It wasn’t until I’d read it that I caught the “Iron” v. “Taconite” connection, as in, Europe has (had) the “iron” curtain of totalitarian socialism, but we’ve only got this really dense rock with some iron in it, “taconite.” You people are all way too clever for me.
In college I went to St. John’s U where we had the “pine curtain” which was a big stand of pine trees that stood on the Eastern side of campus, figuratively blocking insulating the place from eSt. Cloud/Twin Cities, the freeway and basically the rest of everything. And I produced and sometimes hosted a radio talk show called “profiles of the pine curtain” where people talked about whatever seemed important at the time in our little micro-community. It was popular, but popular behind the pine curtain meant like 30 people were listening … [So as I’m editing this looking for a link I came across this site which is obviously very personal for whomever created it, but it illustrates what evils may occur in an isolated environment, in fact it’s one of the issues we covered on the show, I’m sure. I also discovered that there is apparently a pine curtain in Texas ]
But I digress. My real point was this:
Can those that know please post a list of other local terminology/slang or made up geographic terms that may be there on that dictionary or other places for me to peruse? I know there have been many posts over the years right here on pdd about such, and perhaps it warrants it’s own tag or separate archive, even. Kind of a local slang/terminology primer for the newcomer … As in the case of the two links I posted on Pine Curtain (of many, many I found) these terms are all very emotional and passionate, not just funny or snarky. Also, is this the time to bring up a quote directory, too? A place we pile up notable quotes about our region, such as the one that spawned this whole thing Bobby D’s “I’ll give you a medal” statement?
So, feed me some more local terms, and maybe some quotes, if you please.
