pickled punk
n.— «I found out that in early-to-mid-20th century America, stillborn babies and aborted human fetuses, placed in glass jars full of formaldehyde, were a profitable business. The life of the unborn was protected by law, maybe, but a dead fetus was carnival gold. One reader recalls “a whole tentfull” of fetuses in jars at the Tennessee Valley Fair, half a century ago. He said it was like a nightmare. The deformed ones were in especially high demand. I heard from another reader that carnies even had a term for them: “pickled punks.”» —“Exhibits of Interest” by Jack Neely Metro Pulse (Knoxville, Tennessee) Apr. 16, 2006. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
David says that when he was growing up in Akron, Ohio, his family referred to the grassy area between the sidewalk and street as the devil strip. He’s since moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where he doesn’t hear that term. There are lots...
In an 1899 contest sponsored by a literary magazine, a reader proposed the word whifflement to mean “an object of small importance.” This is part of a complete episode.
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