red mushroom
n.— «A preliminary investigation also found that the train’s braking system was not defective and that the operator did not press the “red mushroom”—Muni parlance for the bright red button on the operator’s console that activates an emergency brake. The light-rail vehicles are operated with hand controls.» —“Muni train likely speeding before crash” by Rachel Gordon San Francisco Chronicle (California) June 17, 2008. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
How do you transform ancient Chinese script for use in the modern age? English uses a keyboard with just 26 letters, but the first Chinese typewriter looked like a small table under a huge disk with more than 4,000 characters. A new book chronicles...
Chase from Jacksonville, Florida, grew up in Sacramento, California, where kids played Rochambeau instead of rock, paper, scissors. Why the difference in names? Nobody knows. Folklorists call this a choosing game, and while the hand-game itself...