Unwrap the name of a candy bar, and you just might find a story inside. For instance, one chewy treat found in many a checkout lane is named after a family’s beloved horse. And: 50 years ago in the United States, some Latino elementary students were...
Max, a paramedic in Dallas, Texas, says that in his line of work, the term snowed describes a patient whose level of drug intoxication is so high that they’re aware only of themselves. Snowed in this sense may stem from an analogy with the sensory...
Tom, a medical student in Minneapolis, Minnesota, says surgeons and emergency medical personnel compliment each other with the phrase strong work on that. The congratulatory expression strong work seems largely confined to medicine, though. Another...
Celestial discharge, in medical slang, refers to a patient’s death. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Celestial Discharge” I ran into my friend Jeff Sanchez the other day at the grocery store. And he’s a nurse, and I always ask him...
A Burlington, Vermont, listener says that when he was a boy, his dad used to call him a “little Gomer.” It’s a reference to the 1960’s sitcom “Gomer Pyle,” which featured a bumbling but good-hearted U.S. Marine from the fictional town of Mayberry...
What does it mean to be gorked or crimped? These slang terms for “high on drugs” are used by hospital and emergency medical services workers to help cope with the stress of such traumatic work and to build solidarity among co-workers. This is part...