mussel sucker
n.— «“Newcomers especially want to be a part of the community, so they figure we got rules to be called a clam digger,” Mr. Sadler said, using the folksy local term for a native. “They figure you can be a clam digger if you stand on your right foot in front of the diner for two hours.” But clam diggers are born, not made, Mr. Sadler said. Everyone else is relegated to the category of mussel sucker, the island label for nonnatives. Perhaps nowhere else in New York do natives have as strong a sense of themselves as they do on City Island.» —“In a Seafaring Enclave, Mollusks on the Mind” by Jennifer Bleyer in Bronx, New York New York Times May 27, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Nancy Gabriel from Ithaca, New York, recalls her father’s no-nonsense responses to minor injuries when she was a child: After making sure she was really all right, he’d say, It’s far enough from your heart; it won’t kill you. Other times he might...
A listener in Unadilla, New York, says her husband, whose family is French-Canadian, uses the phrase That burns my onions when something irritates him. There are several kitchen-related metaphors used to express anger, including that steams my...