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are changes within 60 days of 05/15/2002| smoke shifter mythological device used to re-direct the flow of smoke from a fire. This is a often used hazing device of older Boy Scouts who send their younger brethren to find the device at local camping supply stores or berate them for not having brought them. Other popular devices are 500 feet of shoreline, a sky hook (for anchoring things), and 25 feet of fallopian tubing. | |
| The Snowbird Place The fourth house to be the home to the House of the Rising Sun located once again in Rosemont proper. This house sports many firsts for the House: two stories, a pool, and ownership by none other than Charlie Bill. Its layout makes it particularly suited for having large groups over, a fact that was capitalized early on during the House tenure there with two huge parties in the first month and a half. | |
| snygg häck Pronounced "snuk heck". Swedish for "nice ass", literally "nice notch". Popularized by Big Dave who picked this up from a pair of Swedish girls who were over here for a year. We surprised them by using these terms while on a rafting trip on the fourth. Thanks to Big Dave for doing the spelling research | |
| snygga bröst Pronounced "snukka bruust". Swedish for "nice breasts". | |
| SoCal Northern Californian slang for our southern neighbors. The state could effectively be split 'round about Fresno and one could have two completely separate states, both geographically, politically and socially. Much like any geographically close but socially divergent communities, there is a certain amount of rivalry between the north and the south, heightened by sports team defections and re-defections, water rights, and political influence. Southern Californian's are more likely to call this region "the southland". | |
| SoCo Southern Comfort. A 100-proof liqueur made of bourbon and peaches. Its smooth, sweet flavor masks its true potency. Henry has had several bad SoCo experiences and has sworn it off. | |
| Sonora For Camp people, Sonora is the big time. Originally a mining town, Sonora has remained a vital city by being a magnet location for stores and services for the area. Sonora hosts movie theaters, department stores, fast food restaurants, and other businesses that are few and far between in the foothills. This, therefore, became the natural destination for most weekends for staff members looking for a high time on the town, or just wanting to catch the new movies. | |
| Spag Fag The Old Spaghetti Factory, okay pasta at reasonable prices throughout Sacramento and the Bay Area. | |
| the spins A condition brought on by drinking to the point that your brain can no longer process messages from the inner ear correctly, causing equilibrium problems. This is most noticed when a person is trying to go to bed. The only solution to the spins is to get up or risk booting. Mixing alcohol with a session of talking to Bob increases the risks of getting "standing spins" which nearly always result in vomiting. | |
| spliff A mixture of marijuana and regular tobacco. This makes for a smother smoking, longer lasting joint (or so we hear). | |
| Square-D Gas station with convenience store within easy walking distance from The Cherry. Sold somewhat cheap beer on special. Square- D became a destination usually in emergency situations. | |
| State Net Former employer of Charlie Bill, Big Dave, Greg and a host of other misfits as well as the current employer of same. state Net is a "legislative and regulartory tracking service covering all 50 states and the US congress" as employees regularly relate. Their flexible schedule and downtown location make it popular as a place of employment amongst college students and downtown musician types. | |
| Steinbecked To be stored in a manner that is usually undoable and neigh-on hard to repeat. Hank has some magic method of getting things in the rafters so they can not be retrieved. | |
| "Stick it in my butt" Yelled by a neighbor in a fit of ecstasy the morning after the first major House party. This event earned our landlord, who lived across from us and most likely the other party in this event, the title "Iron Dick". | |
| Stingers One of the two closest bars to the CSUS campus, this one runs alternately hot and cold with the local Greek crowd. It was, at one time, listed as the go-to bar by Playboy, the magazine which single-handedly altered the perception of CSU Chico for the better part of a decade. | |
| Stoney Inn A very unlikely bar in the heart of Del Paso Heights. The bar is amazingly cozy inside and has a wonderful patio area that is an oasis from the blight outside its door. The Inn regularly has guest cooks who come in and provide food free to the bars patrons. This place became something of a hangout when Mo, Roy, Hank and Charlie Bill were attending auctions across the street. | |
| stop and rob Generic convenience store. A play on the fact that many of these businesses have "stop" in their names: "Stop and Shop", "Quick Stop", "Stop and Go". | |
| stoplight Evil concoction of drinks colored green (Midori), yellow (likely Galliano), and red (a mixture of cranberry juice and a shitload of Tabasco). The drinks are lined up like a stoplight before the drinker, who usually is not allowed to see the preparation of the drink. If the consumer is any sort of serious drinker, (s)he'll knock them back one-two-three, with a rude surprise awaiting them on the third drink. This is not a good way to start an evening of drinking nor end it nor even have it in the middle. The red light will sit in your stomach bubbling for the rest of the evening. This is usually reserved for 21st birthdays. Reily's was the usual stop for such things in Chico. | |
| storm door An area of high pressure traditionally sits smack dab in the middle of Northern California during the late fall and early winter months, driving the jet stream of moisture-laden air from the Pacific primarily to the north. Storms will pour in from the tropics but will never touch ground in the northern part of the state until, at some point, the pressure drops and allows them through. Local meteorologists refer to this as "the storm door" as once it's open it'll stay open for the rest of the season. | |
| stumble-up window A take-out window at a fast food restaurant with the pedestrian in mind. The Taco Bell in Chico sparked the genesis of this term, where most of the population seems to be drunk and craving cheap Mexican food. | |
| "suck it, suck it, suck it, you BITCH!" Common greeting between Nish and Charlie Bill. Originally from the Fishbone groove "Junkies Prayer" | |
| Sudwerk Local area brew-pub minichain. Sacramento's is the weaker of the two, but makes up for it on Pint Nights, having quality beer at chow beer prices. The fact that Roy and Dave lived across the street from here in 97-98 didn't hurt any either. | |
| Sugarpine Camp's "neighboring" Girl Scout Camp down the road near Arnold. Sugarpine was the target of a number of Camp pranks, including the regular theft of a number of their camp signs. Sugarpine is mentioned in the Camp song "Patsy-ory-ory-ay" as the destination for the year "1899". Becky and Hilary worked there once, giving staffers an "in" to the promised land (we, of course, were after similarly aged counselors, not the campers). | |
| suicide lane In California and a number of other states, the center lane from which one may turn into either to make a left hand turn across traffic or to wait for a hole when making a left hand turn from the opposite side of the street where one would have to cross both directions to make it across. As cars are whizzing by in both directions, as well as entering and leaving this particular center lane, it's name is apt. | |
| Summer Concert Series If you are downtown in Caesar Chavez plaza and not listening to the Summer Sammies, you must be listening to the Summer Concert Series. After several years of the Sammies' success the Downtown Partnership, a mostly business-oriented coalition in the area, decided that they wanted in on the action in 1998. At first it looked like they would win out and the Sammies would be no more. In the end, they both decided to hold concert series (with a bit of overlap in the booking to boot). The twin series now run a ridiculous 20 weeks from early May to late September. The layout in the SCS is radically different than the Sammies, giving far more weight to the beer garden. | |
| Summer Sammies Weekly concert series in the Downtown Plaza. The series became popular enough that the downtown business association decided to hold their own, which also are generically termed "Summer Sammies". The event was originally intended to showcase musicians who'd won or were in the running for a Sammie, the News and Review's "Sacramento Area Music" award (probably stolen heavily from the Bammies of the Bay Area). | |
| sun Name for the ubiquitous $15 halogen torchiere lamps that everyone owns in the 90s. Henry had a 500 watt bulb in his lamp in the landing that when turned off approximated a rapid setting of the sun. That one light positioned in the loft could light the living room area below to a level sufficient for reading or light surgery. | |
| Sutter's Fort In the heart of Sacramento sits Sutter's Fort, a reconstruction of John August Sutter's original outpost in the Sacramento Valley. The wide, white adobe walls sit on a small rise in the middle of a state park. The park regularly features hosts in period costumes reenacting early pioneer life. In a turn for the ironic, Sutter's Fort is also the site of the somewhat laughable State Indian museum. | |
| Suzy's Adult store at the intersection of Florin and Franklin roads in Sacramento, the original supplier of the Beer Tits. Suzy's is about the size of the typical American convenience store in size and is less cool than Goldie's. | |
| The Swallow Another of Chris' couches. This one had the tendency to grab you in your sleep and drop you through the back of the couch. | |
| swirlie This is an oft-threatened attack, but one never actually seen or heard of happening. The victim would have his head stuck in a toilet bowl while the toilet was flushed, reportedly giving the victim's hair a swirl--hence the name. | |
Tacos Cortez
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| Tahoe The term "Tahoe" usually defines a loose area surrounding the mighty lake of the same name and the surrounding towns. Tahoe is a mecca for lake people, gamblers, skiers, rock climbers and all other manner of outdoor recreation types. The north shore of Lake Tahoe is in Nevada and hosts a several block strip of high-class casinos with attendant smaller casinos down the road a ways. The nightlife provided on the North Shore and the daytime recreation provided around and on the lake draw people from all over Northern California and the state. The demographic here is usually younger and middle class--the diversions here are expensive and not for the slower set. | |
| talking to Bob Smoking marijuana. The Bob in question being Marley. | |
| tar-zhey In Northern California's suburban sprawl, the only budget-oriented department store worth half a shit is Target. Pronounced as if French to disguise its proletarian nature. Target has recently started opening Greatlands in the area, which are fucking enormous. | |
| -tard Much like the root, tard, this denotes a particular state of being tardish and is used often by Charlie Bill. Ex: So then, in full Hank-tard mode, he stepped through the screen door. Bill originally picked it up when he found a CD for the local band the Motards while shopping with Mo. Mo was not amused by this. | |
| TC See Tacos Cortez. Often as "TC for me!" | |
| TCR The Compass Rose. A BBS where Charlie Bill met a whole bunch of people, thanks to Hillary. Before the Internet and IRC, a similar setup existed on individual computers across the country. TCR was based in Davis and Sacramento, the two systems linking at night. The board(s) featured a large chat area, with sometimes as many as forty people together in one place. | |
| "tee hee!" This is an expression of ignorance and innocence within several factions in orbit around the House, but it is unclear if the differences are divergent or convergent. Henry often will put his hand to his mouth, schollgirl-stylee but the head-tilt hair-flip (whether real or pantomimed) is also quite popular. | |
| tekillya Another name for tequila, especially when in the midst of a bender. | |
| Telegraph Telegraph Ave in Berkeley, CA. A number of odd stores, an ongoing street bazaar, and numerous gutter punks make Telegraph Ave the east Bay's answer to Height-Ashbury. Hippie-esque, but far more diverse than Height-Ash. | |
| tent explosion Camp term describing what happens when the contents of a sidewall tent spill out and onto the ground. | |
| teriyaki Spam For those of you who may be reading from Mars, Spam is a nasty concoction of pork products and is slightly less salty than the Bonneville Salt Flats. A normal "serving", like two or three small slices, has enough sodium to account for two day's intake. Henry, striving to turn himself into a pillar of salt, decided to marinate the Spam in teriyaki sauce, primarily soy and pineapple sauces. Soy sauce is also salty as hell. The only way he could have gotten more sodium in there was to lodge blocks of it in the Spam. Bill was incredulous that Hank could actually eat a thing, but he was in the minority. | |
| "That'd be the butt, Bob" Reportedly the answer given to Bob Eubanks during a "Newlywed Game" show. The alleged question was "Where's the strangest place you and your wife made whoopie." Eubanks has continuously refuted this, offering $10,000 to anyone who can prove it true. The phrase is oft used anytime the posterior region is mentioned. | |
| That's ass An expressionp that indicates both disgust and exasperation at a particular object or event. Ex: "I can't believe that she just ditched you at the party. That was so ass." | |
| "That's spiel, not schpiel" As part of camp training, staffers were required to watch a portion of the film "In Search of Excellence," the show from which the Goofy influences came. During the segment where they are discussing Disneyland they cover the Jungle Boat Ride, and how it is a carefully scripted spiel. They use the term "spiel" to hearken back to the days of carnival barkers, not "schpiel" to mean a fast-sell, and they make a very heavy-handed point of that. | |
| "That's the smell of guilt" A memorable phrase from Rhonda when she and Hank got back to the House after a prolonged post-party absence and discovered that Charlie Bill had been cleaning with pine disinfectant, thereby odorizing the House with a pleasant forest odor--if forests had been designed by Lysol. | |
| "There's plenty of carbonation" What Pappa Chima declared after tasting a beverage that Chris that he felt was flat and was pouring out. Pappa Chima, seeing his profits literally slipping down the drain, ran over to protest. The phrase worked its way into the common lexicon after multiple retellings of the story devolved into a simple caricature of Pappa Chima with beard net exclaiming this. | |
| "there's two things that smell like fish" ..."and one of them's fish". Needless to say, the other isn't fish. | |
| thermal inversion layer One of the reasons the Sacramento valley gets so damned hot and stays hot is because of a thermal inversion layer, a much ballyhooed term used whenever a weather forecaster is about to throw out the fact that good Sacramentans should carpool the next day, or at least feel guilty about driving. Essentially what happens is the point at which hot air can rise and become cool air gets lower, leaving no place for new hot air to go but outwards or back downwards in ever-heating cycles. The only thing that really saves us is the delta breezes. | |
| they'll take it out on you, and you don't deserve A phrase from the film version of In Search of Excellence, a mid-80s look at American business. A portion of the film containing this phrase detailed Disneyland and was required watching for camp members (see Goofy Head). It is a very true condition that a person often becomes the target for issues that aren't of the person's making (Freud called this transference). | |
| "They're magically delicious" The LtCmdr, in his early hypericy days, was spied eating Lucky Charms. Now, for such a hardcore individual, the image of him eating a sugary kids cereal proved somewhat amusing. Someone asked: "Lucky Charms Jeff?" He froze, and locking the asking party in a steely stare replied in monotone: "they're magically delicious". No one was sure if it was okay to laugh or not. | |
| The Thing Brendan's VW Thing. A vehicle bred for adventure, and adventure it provided. Originally a hand-me-down from his elder brother, it was disposed of after it became to costly to maintain. It was eventually replaced by The Volvo. The Thing was the only car to have its own song, set to the tune of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang". | |
Thunderbird
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| tocque A strange Shavor-ism that he claims to be a Canadian term for knit caps. The tocque was a cornerstone of the cabin trips, usually held in the fall or spring when nighttime temperatures could drop considerably in the low mountains. The house could only be minimally heated and sweaters and caps were the order of the day. Everyone raided the cabin's clothing stores, with many of the garments gaining their own names over time, such as the "nipple tocque". The common spelling as "tocque" was flavored by a cabin version of Brendan's House Rules. [Thanks to Mark Franklin, an honest-to-God Canadian for correction on the spelling. Maybe they're not such bad people after all. Naahhhh] | |
| tomato juice Charlie Bill swears up and down by this as a hangover remedy, though no one has yet to join his bandwagon. Bill has managed quite a number of Lazarus-like returns from the dead using tomato juice to prime the pumps before a hangover breakfast. | |
| Tough Shit Market Formerly a Circle-K, this convenience store had a very minor makeover when it was decomissioned but remains, at heart, the exact same store sans gas pumps. The store is actually the "TS Market"--the full name was added later by Charlie Bill. The Tough Shit is located on Kiefer Blvd near Mayhew, smack dab inbetween the Oxwood Place and the Snowbird Place. | |
| Tower If you live in westernized country, or have even been to one, you've no doubt heard of Tower Records. Tower is an international chain that started in Sacramento back in the late 40's as a corner in a small drugstore. The name came from the Tower movie theater which dominated the structure the drugstore cohabited. The record store eventually overtook the drugstore and then moved across the street to its present home. The original location has since been taken over by the Tower Cafe, a funky downtown eatery. The original sign still stands above the cafe, though, and is sentimentally maintained by the president of Tower Records. | |
| Tower Bridge As you come into town from the Bay Area, one of the first things you see is the Tower Bridge. The bridge, lit up brightly at night, is a large deco-style drawbridge straddling the Sacramento River. It is one of the more remarkable city landmarks, and certainly one of the nicer attractions in the Sacramento skyline. The Tower Bridge is located on Capitol Blvd next to Old Town. | |
| Tower Cafe A funky restaurant located in the old Tower Drugstore. The restaurant serves world cuisine to a fairly hip clientele. Their indoor seating is decorated somewhat as if a Cost Plus store shipment had been diverted to the restaurant. Outside the restaurant maintains a large patio section that nearly doubles their seating capacity. On the warm spring and summer months, this is the place to sit at the restaurant. During the chilly months they bring out space heaters so it remains somewhat hospitable except in the worst of weather. The service is best described as "casual": patrons seat themselves and are well served to expect a leisurely meal or to have their transactions all lined up to minimize the long dissapearances of the wait staff. The food is always good and there are always specials available on the menu. |
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