Slang This! with Beagle-Chased

You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette. It’s time for our weekly slang challenge where we try to stump a member of the National Puzzlers League.

Today’s contestant is Brian Wecht from New York City.

Hello, Brian.

Hi, Grant. Hi, Martha.

Hi, Brian.

How are you doing?

I’m great. How are you two?

Doing super duper. Brian, you’re a co-resident with me in New York City.

Well, actually, I am in New Jersey.

Oh, New Jersey. That’s so far away. Never mind.

What do you do there?

I’m a postdoc right now at a research institution called the Institute for Advanced Studies.

Oh, really?

Yeah, it’s in Princeton.

Can you sum up your dissertation in language I can understand?

Well, I work on string theory and supersymmetry.

String theory and supersymmetry?

It’s kind of mathematical particle physics sort of stuff.

Okay, so you’re going to ace this slang quiz, right?

Well, let’s hope those two are correlated.

I’m sure there’s a correlation.

Do you have a favorite slang term you’d like to share with us?

Yeah, I do.

I love the word pie hole.

As in shut your pie hole.

I like it too.

Yeah, that’s a good one.

Shut your pie hole.

It’s just very crass and rude.

Yeah, it’s so vulgar.

Yeah, it appeals to the 10-year-old in me.

I was going to say, you and Grant are going to get along great.

Pie hole meaning mouth.

All right, Brian.

Well, let’s see how you do with the quiz, all right?

Okay, sure.

Here are the rules.

I’m going to give you a sentence with a blank in it.

Your job is to fill that blank with one of the two answers, all right?

Only one of them is correct.

If you get stumped or stuck, ask Martha for help.

Okay, great.

All right.

Okay, here we go.

Sure.

No, it won’t be done on time.

Yes, I put that in my report.

The problem is that whenever I report problems to my boss and she reports them to her boss and he reports to the CEO,

The information is blanked all the way down the line.

So, Brian, what happens to the information?

Is it A, beaglechased, B-E-A-G-L-E-C-H-A-S-E-D, beaglechased, or greenshifted, G-R-E-E-N-S-H-I-F-T-E-D?

Cool.

Well, I have to say, as a physicist, I love the term greenshifted, because that reminds me of the Doppler effect, right,

Where as you move towards or away from a source,

The frequency of a pitch or of a light or whatever it is changes.

The information is propagating away from the original source.

It’s actually changing its color.

The redshift.

Yeah, so traditionally it’s a redshift or a blueshift.

Right, yeah.

So I think purely to be true to my roots, I’m going to have to go with greenshift.

It also has a nice technical feel to it.

Yes, and that is correct.

And actually, your explanation, your story about the redshift and the Doppler effect,

That is the origin of greenshifting.

The further information goes from the source, the more positive it becomes.

Brian, I am so impressed.

Cool.

Well, I think you picked the one slang term that actually coincides with what I know.

I did not know that you were a physicist.

I did not know.

But good.

I’m glad that you got it right.

Greenshifting is a business jargon.

It’s been around a couple of years.

I don’t know how popular it is, but I think it’s a good term because it’s so true.

How often have you, you know, found your boss’s boss in the hallway and your boss’s boss is like,

I hear everything’s going great, and you’re like, no, we need more people.

We need more time.

It just doesn’t make it quite up the chain because, you know.

Because it’s green shifted.

Wow.

All right.

See how you do on this next one, Brian?

Okay, great.

This building project is blank.

We’ve got the blueprints, the contractors, and the land.

All we need now is approval to spend the money.

So is the building project A, shovel-ready, or B, kiln-fired?

K-I-L-N, fired.

K-I-L-N.

Shovel-ready or kiln-fired?

Well, shovel-ready, it’s like we’re almost there, right?

We’re just ready to dig the first, get the first shovel in and get it ready to go.

Sounds nice and building specific.

Yeah, I think I’m going to go with that one.

I like it.

Two for two.

You’re rocking, Brian.

Shovel Ready came to my attention this year because Barack Obama is fond of using it.

Is he really?

Yeah, it’s a classic bit of jargon that kind of spans several industries.

Government people like to use it.

Governments are just filled with agencies that have plans that are only waiting for money or approval.

And those plans are called Shovel Ready.

They’re just, exactly as you said, they’re waiting for the first shovel of dirt to be used.

And they say regardless of whether it’s for a building project or whatever.

I have actually seen shovel-ready used for something other than a building project,

But in my sentence I decided to keep it on the building so that there are clues embedded there.

I always try to be shovel-ready around Grant, but it has a totally different meaning.

I’m like the horses that go around Central Park that they have the canvas bag behind them to catch the…

Just in case.

Just in case.

Usually people have to wait about 40 more years for that.

Well, Brian, you’re so impressive.

All that postgraduate training has really paid off.

Thanks.

I’m glad it’s useful for something.

Yeah.

Well, thanks for playing.

Thank you, Brian.

I had a great time.

All right.

Bye-bye.

Well, if you have a question about words or language or grammar or slang, give us a call.

The number is 1-877-929-9673.

That’s 1-877-WAYWORD or send an email to words@waywordradio.org.