New York dress
n.— «Now let me tell you, chickens you sold fresh, they had to be almost still alive. When we first started selling chickens, they couldn’t have the skin broke on ’em, so they weren’t drawn. They just had their feathers off. The feet was still on ’em and the head ’cause that was what the housewife wanted to look at. She wanted to see how red the comb was and she would be able to tell the age of the chicken by seeing its feet. With the entrails still in the chicken like that, well, that’s called a New York dress.» —“When the count and countess made visits to Englewood” by Diana Harris Sun-Herald (Englewood, Florida) Oct. 28, 2006. (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...
Julie in Fort Pierce, Florida, recalls that on sweltering days her mother would declare the weather was hotter than Billy Blue Blazes! The word blazes is a euphemism for “hell,” as in hot as blazes. The blue in blue blazes has long been used as an...