berry
n.— «Berries – Lobster eggs. Conscientious, law-abiding lobstermen will gently return a berried female back to the water after V-notching her tail, indicating to others that she’s a valuable resource. Her 10,000 or so eggs, carried on the outside of her shell, will be released after 9 or 10 months, and of these, about 10 of them will survive. That’s 1/10 of 1 percent who even have a whiff of a chance of reaching maturity.» —“How to Talk Like a Maine Lobsterman” by Thy Tran KQED Food Blog: Bay Area Bites (San Francisco, California) July 15, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Chuck in Rutland, Vermont, has heard a phrase several times over the years that left him puzzled. If someone announces it’s late and they’re going to bed, and someone else questions that idea, the retiring one observes, Well, it’s...
Ribbon fall. Gallery forest. You won’t find terms like these in most dictionaries, but they and hundreds like them are discussed by famous writers in the book Home Ground: A Guide to the American Landscape. The book is an intriguing collection...