who laid the rail
adv. phr.— «He was selling very cheap to Wm. Larew, the grocer, when the capture was made, and “lit out for who laid the rail,” but the marshal was a little too spry for him.» —“Chicken Thief Caught” Knoxville Journal (Kentucky) Aug. 4, 1893. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Lisa from Paris, Kentucky, grew up eating a German Christmas cookie at a friend’s house in Miami, Florida. This deep-fried, bow-tie-shaped pastry was made with butter, lemon, and rum, and dusted with powdered sugar. The family called them...
A listener who grew up in Newfoundland remembers her grandfather declaring the fog was thick as burgoo. Turns out burgoo was sailors’ slang for a gray, gelatinous oatmeal—exactly the right image for an impenetrable Newfoundland fog. The word appears...