Re: CHAT Re: Souvlaki (was most looked-up words)

Roger Mills scripsit:

> Truth to tell, I'd never heard of [hero sandwiches] until college
> years in Boston (50s)-- where they're also called "grinders" (why?????)
Probably because they look like they could reach back to one's grinders,
i.e. the molars (which is just Latin for "grinders", as in the millstones
of a grain mill.)  The term is general in the whole non-rhotic area around Boston.

> In New Orleans, "po'boys", in Miami, "Cuban sandwiches".
Cuban sandwiches, unlike the others, are toasted in some kind of device
that makes them come out compressed.

Other names include "hoagies" (Philadelphia), "torpedoes", "wedges", and
"zep(pelin)s".  Wikipedia thinks the sandwich is not Italian, but was
designed in New York City for Italian immigrants.

Finally, there is the term "Dagwood sandwich", referring to Blondie's husband
in the long-running comic strip _Blondie_.  I don't know if this is live
usage or just a kind of in-joke.

--
"And it was said that ever after, if any                John Cowan
man looked in that Stone, unless he had a               jcowan@reutershealth.com
great strength of will to turn it to other              www.ccil.org/~cowan
purpose, he saw only two aged hands withering           www.reutershealth.com
in flame."   --"The Pyre of Denethor"

Replies