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
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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...