Slon Doon

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

And I’m Martha Barnette, and it’s time for another round of Slang This.

Today’s contestant is Dee Dee Varner from San Diego.

Dee Dee, are you with us?

I sure am.

All right. Say hello to Grant.

Hey, Grant.

Hello, Dee Dee. How’s everything?

Oh, we’re very fine here in Claremont.

Very good.

I’m glad to hear it.

Right there in the middle of San Diego County, right?

Yes.

Yeah. Well, do you have a favorite slang expression to share with us?

I do. It’s one that my family has sort of adopted.

And it started out in an entirely different context, but we have made it our own.

And it’s Slon Doon.

What?

Hello, what is that?

S-L-O-N-D-O-O-N.

A couple of years ago or less, my kids and I were looking at a forwarded email of pictures of signs from other countries that tried to do it in English.

The one that just cracked us up the most was Slon Dune, and it was a sign that said, slow down.

Its original translation is, slow down, toll booth ahead.

But it read, Slon Dune, tool bot ahead.

What country was it from?

I think an Asian country like maybe Thailand.

Wow.

So what do you guys use this for in your family?

Everything we want.

It’s like the all-purpose expletive or the all-purpose exclamation.

You can change it for excitement or, you know, the nastiness, the nasty mom.

And, in fact, one time I used it in a store when my kids were kind of, you know, wild like they are wont to be.

And I just said in a sharp voice, Slon Doon.

And they just perked right into their little good-behaved selves.

I love it.

I love it.

That’s nice.

But the people around me were looking askance and trying to shuffle to a different aisle.

Hey, well, DeeDee, let’s see how much of a slumdun you are guessing the meaning of other slang terms.

Yippee-yippee, let’s do it.

All right, well, here’s how we play.

Grant’s going to give you a slang term, and then he’s going to present you with three possible examples of how it might be used.

And only one of those examples is real.

The other two are bogus.

So, Deedee, your job will be to tell us which example is the real thing.

Three choices, one answer.

You got it?

I got it.

Okay, and if you need a lifeline, I’m right here.

All right.

Grant, take it away.

All right, Deedee, today we’re going to have two slang expressions for you to guess,

And each one will have three possible answers.

The first one is busting a sag, or bust a sag.

That’s three words, B-U-S-T-I-N-G-A-S-A-G, busting a sag.

And the first contextual clue, we’ll call it, is,

All right.

That’s the first one.

The second one.

The latest cosmetic surgery technique is busting a sag.

Cosmetic surgeons use low-powered tasers to shock your wrinkly, flabby body into a firm suppleness.

Let me do the third clue.

Okay.

Trash men in Savannah, Georgia dread the first Wednesday of the month.

That’s discard day for big furniture like couches and sofas.

Busting a sag is what they call chopping the stuff up into smaller pieces so it will fit in the truck.

So which is the correct use of busting a sag?

Is it A, intentionally wearing your pants slung low so your boxer shorts are revealed,

B, a type of cosmetic surgery that uses taser guns,

Or C, the breaking up of large furniture to fit in a trash truck?

Goodness, goodness.

Well, for years I taught school at a local high school, and I’ll tell you, I was saying just say no to crack to about every student that walked in my room.

I really like the first one. So I think I’m going to pick that one. Your logic is impeccable. Your understanding of young Americans is fantastic. And you are exactly right.

Oh, hooray. If you’re busting a sag, or if you bust a sag, you’re wearing your britches down just below your buttocks so that your boxer shorts are up high.

There are only two slang terms today, so here’s the second one. Pull the chute. This is also a three-worder. P-U-L-L-T-H-E-C-H-U-T-E.

Okay. And here’s the first clue. There are tons of reasons why candle making is fun. The best one, to me, is when you pull the chute on the candle mold and all these perfectly formed waxy shapes roll out.

The second one. Some football players will play injured, and some will just pull a chute, acting more injured than they are. It’s hard for a coach to tell which is which and know whom to pull from the game.

And the third one. Our startup was fully funded by venture capitalists, but then they pulled the chute and brought the whole thing to a halt. We’re closing the business next week.

So, which of the three is the correct use of pull the chute? Is it A, to break open a candle mold? Is it B, to fake a football injury or to act more injured than you are? Or is it C, to kill a startup company by withdrawing an investment?

I’m going to say C because the first two just don’t seem plausible. I’ve seen them make candles, and they don’t really roll out in the factories I’ve looked at.

No, you take factory tours of candle-making places? Well, you know, if you travel a little bit, you end up at a candle factory sometime in your life.

Yeah, you know, that happens to all of us. What a moment that is. I’m waiting for my candle factory days.

But I like the third one. It seems kind of apropos to our economics of the times. So I’m going with the third one.

All the drama going on. Surely there must be some funny language connected to that, right? Yeah.

Are you sure? Well, maybe I’m not sure. Oh, okay.

Now, what was the second one again? The second one was to fake a football injury or to act more injured than you are.

Do you ever watch drag racing on television? Yeah. You know, the ones where they have these really funky-shaped cars, and they’ve got these parachutes that come out.

Right, and then they slow down with the chute coming out at the end of the race. Right, they stop with the parachute. They’re done.

Well, so then that… Man, let’s see here. Can I just tell you, Dee Dee? I guess you better.

It is the second one. It’s the football players. And the logic there is that they’re pulling the chute early, not just that they’re pulling the chute, they’re pulling the chute early in order to just give up before they even have to bother to really put in the effort to win or put in the effort out there on the field to do what it takes.

Okay. Well, you know, I have learned a considerable amount with that phrase now. Dee Dee, thank you so much for playing today. This was great fun.

Thanks for having me. Slum Doon! Slum Doon!

Well, Dee Dee, as a way of saying thanks, we’re going to send you a copy of Grant’s book. It’s called the Oxford Dictionary of American Political Slang.

Ooh, that’s great. I’ve been wanting one of those.

And listeners, if you’d like to join our quiz on the air, the number to call is 1-877-929-WORD or send us an email to words@waywordradio.org. Be sure to include all your phone numbers and your favorite slang word.