hell night
n.— «It was all about alleged hazing at the Memphis fire department during a training event commonly called “hell night.”…Memphis City leaders promise their firefighter training has changed since some controversial October 2004 video was recorded. On the video, you can see a supervisor telling recruits, “You swing that axe like a little girl” and “I don’t think you’re going to make it you better hurry your butts up!” Firefighters called it hell night and it was at this same event that firefighter James Coleman suffered heat stroke and—his attorney explains—slipped into a two-month coma.» —“City and firefighter’s family talk about possible settlement” WMC-TV (Memphis, Tennessee) June 13, 2006. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Ophelia in Johnson City, Tennessee, wonders about the exclamation her great-grandmother often used when something surprised her: Cat bristle! That may be her own version of a minced oath, although it fits with the idea of how a cat’s tail might look...
Enthusiastic book recommendations! Martha’s savoring the biography of Alexander von Humboldt, the 19th-century explorer, polymath, and naturalist who revolutionized our understanding of nature and predicted the effects of human activity on...