dog bowl
n.— «First and foremost came the invention of wheels manufactured from urethane—”They’re made from oil!”—with the capacity to grip surfaces, allowing these kids to experiment with weaving in and out of traffic, gripping the roofs of cars, and, perhaps most importantly, the empty swimming pools, made possible by a serendipitous drought that plagued Southern California in the ‘70s. These otherwise unused cement ponds came to be referred to as “dog bowls” and the rebellious process by which this sport was perfected taps into the teenager in all of us.» —“Surfing on Cement” by Joe Birdsong Gay City News (New York City) June 2-8, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Asthenosphere, a geologist’s term for the molten layer beneath the earth’s crust, sparks a journey that stretches all the way from ancient Greece to the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Plus: What the heck is a dogberg? It’s when...
A young caller from the Hudson Valley of New York wonders about his grandmother’s use of stemwinder to praise a speech she thought was excellent. In the early 1800s, people used pocket watches that had to be wound with a tiny key. Once someone...