Thursday, June 01, 2006

Shag

Who uses it: People who grew up or went to school in Southeastern seaside towns
What it means: A type of swing dancing (also called "Carolina shag," or "beach dancing") that involves lots of footwork, but little spinning and no jumping. It's the official state dance of South Carolina.
How you can use it: To celebrate the season. Put on The Tams and be young, be foolish, be happy...

If I said "it's been a long time since I shagged," in Virginia Beach, someone would put on "Stagger Lee" and say, "Let's do it." Sadly, Austin Powers has popularized the British meaning of this word, which is "to copulate like weasels."

Summertime in Maine means lots of things: green grass, blue water, pine-scented breezes, birds and butterflies... and bugs. And construction. And roadkill. Over the past few days, I've seen a dead coyote, a dead porcupine, two dead possums, a dead beaver, a dead skunk and a dead rabbit on roads between Portland and China.

But I also saw a Baltimore oriole sitting on a sign post along 295 -- and I knew it was a Baltimore oriole because it looks just like the one on the baseball cap. Cool.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Summertime in Maine means lots of things: green grass, blue water, pine-scented breezes, birds and butterflies... and bugs. And construction. And roadkill. Over the past few days, I've seen a dead coyote, a dead porcupine, two dead possums, a dead beaver, a dead skunk and a dead rabbit on roads between Portland and China."

It also means a visit from the Schulzes, but NOT the dead Schulzes, since Tarren has a new car!

xox
Sue

Ellen Clair Lamb said...

And we are looking forward to that VERY much!

Added to my roadkill sightings in the past couple of days: a dead raccoon, a dead groundhog, and a dead water rat...