Tennessee music box
n.— «Dulcimers come in all shapes and sizes—peanut-shaped models, triangles, graceful ovals and rectangular contraptions often called “Tennessee music boxes.” They usually have three or four strings and sound like a cross between a mandolin and a guitar, but sweeter-sounding, more fluid and droning than both.» —“Starry Lullabye” by John Nova Lomax Nashville Scene (Tennessee) Aug. 24, 2006. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
Ophelia in Johnson City, Tennessee, wonders about the exclamation her great-grandmother often used when something surprised her: Cat bristle! That may be her own version of a minced oath, although it fits with the idea of how a cat’s tail might look...