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Copyright © 1998-2001, Janet I. Egan


barista
kid who makes coffee drinks at Starbucks (formerly the Coffee Connection)
Beanie Baby
toy no child can live without several dozen of
breader
person who feeds bread to ducks; verb: to bread
brotheration
aggregate celebration of brother birthdays occurring in the same or sequential months.You make up words like this when you have a lot of brothers.
cabinet
frappe in Rhode Islandese - see frappe
 

cellar

basement - where you keep tools and junk - not where you keep wine
Coffee Connection
a chain of coffee shops in the greater Boston area bought out by Starbucks. Many early entries refer to meeting friends and drinking coffee at the Coffee Connection in Andover, Massachusetts.
coffee milk
state beverage of Rhode Island
coffee syrup
used to make coffee milk - brands are Eclipse or Autocrat
Del's
lemonade bordering on lemon slush - lost a tight race for RI state beverage to coffee milk
downcellar
in the cellar (basement)
downcity
downtown, also a proper noun denoting the Downcity Diner as in "We went to Downcity for breakfast."
FIP
Feline Infectious Peritonitis
FIV
Feline Immune deficiency Virus
FLV
Feline Leukemia Virus
frappe
milkshake (contains ice cream)
IDRI
International Dendrological Research Institute
jokullhaup
volcanic eruption underneath a glacier, also called glacier burst - causes lots of flooding (Icelandic)
kraal
a fenced enclosure for cattle or sheep in South Africa
 
Massachusetts
place near the big hill - named for the Massachusett tribe who lived near Great Blue Hill when the white folks came - not named after Massasoit although he played a huge role in Massachusetts history. There is no evidence that the Massachusett viewed living here as symptomatic of insanity.
milkshake
milk and flavored syrup - no ice cream involved
Monophysite
a person who believes that Christ had but one nature, or a composite nature of the human and the divine
MRFRS
Merrimack River Feline Rescue Society
pinano
piano in Andrea speak (actually she's outgrown this now, and has quit piano lessons but I have to keep it in the glossary for past entries)
piping plover
a small shorebird the color of dry sand - see The Plover Warden Diaries
proleptic
of prolepsis; anticipatory. From the noun prolepsis meaning the describing of an event as taking place before it could have, the treating of a future event as if it had already happened, or the anticipating and answering of an argument before one's oppenent has a chance to advance it.
quahog
pronounced co-hog, a marine invertebrate forming the staple diet of people in Rhode Island
Starbucks
unless otherwise specified refers to the Starbucks incarnation on Main Street in Andover, Massachusetts, which used to be a Coffee Connection. Before it was the Coffee Connection it was Ford's Coffee Shop but Stella and Tom (the Ford's owners) retired and couldn't get their kids to take over the business.
stuffie
stuft animal or baked stuffed quahog depending on context
stuft
stuffed (inventive spelling used in Groton-Dunstable Schools)
T
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority aka MBTA fka MTA
Teenie Beanie
miniature Beanie Baby distributed by McDonalds with Happy Meals
URI
Upper Respiratory Infection or University of Rhode Island depending on whether I'm writing about cats or oceanography
wicked
severe or severely - as in "wicked bad snowstorm last week!" or "wicked good rock n' roll"- used in New England states, especially Massachusetts, Maine, and Rhode Island. Readers have submitted reports of its being used in Connecticut.

 

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