Pizza Dashboard

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi there, Martha and Grant.

My name’s Karen, and I live in Richmond, Virginia.

And I have a question for you about the use of the word dashboard.

Dashboard.

Dashboard.

I was eating with friends recently, and we were eating pizza.

I finished my slice, and I didn’t want to eat the crust, and I referred to it as the dashboard.

The leftover crust is the dashboard?

Yes, but only of a piece of pizza.

It was just one piece.

It wouldn’t be the whole crust of a pizza.

Okay.

Yeah, I would use the same word to refer to the crust that’s left over after you eat the good part of a piece of pie.

Oh, really? Okay.

Yeah. So my friends in Richmond, Virginia looked at me like I was crazy.

They had never heard the word before, and I thought, well, it must be something from Wisconsin, because that’s where I’m from originally.

And there’s often words that pop up like that.

And then I checked with my family. Nope, they’ve never heard of it either.

I think I might have made it up.

I’m not sure.

It makes sort of intuitive sense to me, but…

Yeah, it makes sense to me, too.

It’s a great visual.

I mean, if you said the dashboard of a pizza to me, and I never heard the expression…

Well, actually, I haven’t, but…

Well, I haven’t heard it either.

Yeah, but it makes sense.

It makes sense historically to me, because the dashboard in a car comes from the dashboard in a wagon or a carriage, and it had…

Think of the dashboard on a sleigh.

It’s got that particular curved shape that looks amazingly like the crust of a pizza, sticking up and kind of folded over, right?

Rolled over at the top?

No.

The old one.

But, yeah, it’s right there in front of your face, too, as you’re eating the pizza.

I’ve never heard anybody say this.

No, me neither.

So you’re just weird, Karen.

Well, I guess my question then is, is there a word for when you make up a word but think you’ve heard it before?

Don’t get out much, maybe?

Excessive drug use?

I don’t know.

No, but now we have a word for this.

You did it.

You’ve coined it.

It’s here.

We’re sharing it with hundreds of thousands of people in one go.

We’ll see if it sticks.

How about that?

Perfect.

Although, you know, I have heard a few other terms for this.

In this language.

Yes, and Italian as well.

Okay.

I know lots of people who call it the pizza bones.

Oh, yes, I’ve heard that.

Yeah, I have heard that.

Maybe leave a pile of them.

I don’t know.

Do you eat yours or not?

It depends on how good it is.

If it’s, you know, delicious pizza, then it’s going to have an awesome crust.

Right.

You know, frozen pizza from the grocery store, there’s no point needing it.

Exactly.

So you like the big poofy kind then?

I do.

Or, you know, like wood-fired pizza, that crust is so delicious.

And it’s like the best, you know, Italian bread that you would eat.

And what’s really interesting is that, you know, Italians distinguish between that part of the pizza, the raised rim and the crust that’s on the bottom.

Those are two different things in Italian.

Wait, are they made from the same dough?

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, but, you know, it’s a different formation because of that rim.

They call it the cornicione.

Oh, so like the cornice.

Yes, exactly, like the ledge on the top of a building.

Specialists always have special words for special things.

Right, right.

Karen, dashboard for the crust that’s left over from a pizza.

We’re talking about the hard end that kind of sticks up.

The handle.

Some people call it the handle.

Nice, very good.

The pizza handle.

I have heard it called the bones because sometimes it is really hard to eat.

It’s hard, particularly like day-old pizza.

Yeah, but I like calling it the dashboard.

There’s something weird about it.

It just makes sense.

Yep.

It translates, right?

We are endorsing your cornage.

Perfect.

Sounds good.

Karen, thank you so much for calling us.

Yeah, spread it around Virginia.

And you know what?

We’re going to get a ton of calls and emails about this.

I’m sure other people have words, and we’ll share those on a future show, okay?

Sounds great.

I love the show.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Take care now.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

I have mixed feelings about that part of the pizza, I have to say.

Are you not a true American who really likes her pizza?

I love pizza.

Are you kidding?

I absolutely love it.

Are you like, is the carb thing too much bread?

No, no, no.

It depends on the quality, the quality of the dashboard.

It’s hard to nail that, right?

Yeah.

I like a fat, thick, doughy crust, and not everyone does.

All the way across the…

Everything.

I like it to be bready.

I like it maybe even gooey.

No kidding.

But no cheese.

Don’t put cheese inside of it.

Don’t put hot dogs in it.

Don’t do any of that nonsense.

Pineapple.

No.

No, no.

I like the really thin, almost crispy, almost cracker crispy crust, and then poofy around the edges.

Oh, interesting.

That’s my preference.

Yeah, I didn’t know that you didn’t like real pizza.

All right, we want to hear from you.

What do you think?

877-929-9673 is the number to call with your pizza opinions, or you can email them to words@waywordradio.org.