back-porch money
n.— «That’s not to say street money doesn’t cause problems. For one thing, by the time it reaches ward leaders, it is cash. While some ward leaders are assiduous about keeping receipts and filing the necessary public reports, others aren’t. Indeed, some ward leaders have—surprise!—skimmed money before it reached the street. There is even a name for this, “back-porch money”—not enough to build a house, but enough to get yourself a nice new porch.» —“Cash and Carry (the City)” by Tom Ferrick Jr. in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania New York Times Apr. 22, 2008. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Victor, a film noir fan in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, says closed captioning has made him newly aware of dialogue he’d previously missed. Watching The Maltese Falcon, for example, he ran into the phrase crackin’ foxy. The crack is the same crack as...
Jeff in Mattapoisett, Massachusetts, asks about muldoon, a word particular to Baltimore politics, with a wide variety of meanings. Muldoon may well have Irish roots, as it is an Irish name. Baltimore columnist Frank Kent popularized it as a term for...