vomit comet
n.— «Discontinuance of the interurban service between Iowa City and Cedar Rapids comes as a bit of a shock to those alumni of Iowa who used to ride it. Various crops of students had different names for the “Crandic,” and the last car to Iowa City at night was known far and wide as the “Vomit Comet” in the good old days of prohibition. Seems some professors (never, never, never any students) used to go to Cedar Rapids and lap up some joy juice and catch the last train out. The swinging and swaying, jerking and jolting, with the track laid out by a drunk snake with the DTs, led to the inevitable result of a revolt by the stomach. The doors would never open—so…“Crandic” comes from the initials on the cars CRandIC railway.» —“The Old Goat” Algona Advance (Iowa) June 2, 1953. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
After our conversation about towns with extremely short names, many listeners wrote to tell us about Why, Arizona. Others pointed out that there are towns called Ely in Iowa, Minnesota, and Nevada. Other super-short appellations include Rye, New...
The cardboard cylinder left after the last sheet of toilet, tissue, or wrapping paper comes off the roll has inspired families to make up a lot of names for the tube or the sounds you can make with it. These include oh-ah, oh-ah, drit-drit, dah-dah...