# Words/Phrases You've Never Uttered Until You Started Working There **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 29, 2006, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-phrases-youve-never-uttered-until-you-started-working-there/370725 "2006-08-29T23:18:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DeVena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dec6dc/32.png) [@DeVena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeVena)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2006, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-phrases-youve-never-uttered-until-you-started-working-there/370725/21 "2006-08-30T21:29:17Z")
“Are these evil spirits touching you right now?” “No, ma’am. I don’t have a chain saw.” “Did you know the thermometer was broken before you put it in your mouth?” ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2006, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-phrases-youve-never-uttered-until-you-started-working-there/370725/22 "2006-08-30T21:31:58Z")
“I pulled two Dicks out and put in the balls.” I work in broadcasting. I was working with sales in placing commercials in key programming. I pulled two Dicks Sporting Goods commercials out to put in two golf ball spots. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2006, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-phrases-youve-never-uttered-until-you-started-working-there/370725/23 "2006-08-30T21:51:15Z")
“Chimsull” came from a government description of a new product we made for new cars and trucks. For preventing rear-end collisions, somebody decided that stepping on the brake should light up a “center high mounted stop lamp” (CHMSL) in the rear window. Before the molds were even made, the engineers were already saying chimsull, as if it had always been a word. ---
**Author:** ![Mouse\_Maven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@Mouse\_Maven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mouse_Maven)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2006, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-phrases-youve-never-uttered-until-you-started-working-there/370725/24 "2006-08-30T21:55:49Z")
“I would like to order 200 reaction units of human testes.” “You’re thymus is in the fridge.” From a very frustrating immuno assay: Three thymi Three thymi See how the run This run is causing me so much strife. Looks like they were cut out with an exacto-knife. Three thymi Three thymi ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2006, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-phrases-youve-never-uttered-until-you-started-working-there/370725/25 "2006-08-30T22:47:08Z")
**Black Train Song** do they still call overheating wheel bearings a “hot box?” That should be good for a few chuckles in the current vernacular. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2006, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-phrases-youve-never-uttered-until-you-started-working-there/370725/26 "2006-08-30T22:53:03Z")
“Kill me a million people, then we’ll talk.” Debate case, looking for impacts, don’t ask. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![myskepticsight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cc9497/32.png) [@myskepticsight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/myskepticsight)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2006, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-phrases-youve-never-uttered-until-you-started-working-there/370725/27 "2006-08-31T01:03:51Z")
I worked in a pizza joint for years, and the one that comes to find first is: “Busting pies” As in, “Hey John, can you go bust pies? I have to do paperwork.” Bust pies = make pizza. ---
**Author:** ![Black\_Train\_Song](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4da419/32.png) [@Black\_Train\_Song](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Black_Train_Song)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2006, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-phrases-youve-never-uttered-until-you-started-working-there/370725/28 "2006-08-31T14:11:41Z")
> [@Kevbo](#): > > **Black Train Song** do they still call overheating wheel bearings a “hot box?” That should be good for a few chuckles in the current vernacular. Yeah they do. It’s just not funny when hot box detectors go off because I have to walk it. Also, classification yards are called “hump” yards. I aways cheer up a bit when I see “do not hump” stenciled on a car. ---
**Author:** ![Monkey\_Chews](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@Monkey\_Chews](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monkey_Chews)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2006, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-phrases-youve-never-uttered-until-you-started-working-there/370725/29 "2006-08-31T17:16:59Z")
I work in a refuge for people who are homeless, HIV-positive and have drug & alcohol and/or mental health issues. I have said the following things: “We have seriously got to get a smaller dildo. I can’t look at this with a straight face anymore.” (To my boss a few days ago.) “I liked him much better when he was on heroin.” (Regarding a client who has started using chrystal meth) I once actually said this sentence in a disappointed tone: “Aw shit, if only he was HIV-positive!” (I then nearly died of embarassment.) ---
**Author:** ![Carl\_Corey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Carl\_Corey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carl_Corey)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2006, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-phrases-youve-never-uttered-until-you-started-working-there/370725/30 "2006-08-31T17:57:23Z")
FTR, I work in a library. “This is why I keep an emergency supply of good mustard.” “Quit whining, my farts are only set on stun. Just be glad they’re not on disintegrate.” “Dammit, the CCCs are in the DDC again.” “It’s a good thing those two idiots both happen to be women. Otherwise they might mate and give birth to the messiah of stupid.” From my previous job in payroll: “Y’know, this case of fraud has made this week much more interesting.” “I really had to resist telling this employee, “Sir, the reason your paycheck has been garnished is because you’ve had ten kids by four different women in four years, and you haven’t paid one red cent for 'em.” But I’d rather not get fired.” ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2006, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-phrases-youve-never-uttered-until-you-started-working-there/370725/31 "2006-08-31T18:12:06Z")
We get pre-op cabbage specimens all the time in the blood bank. (cabbage = CABG = coronary artery bypass graft) So you’ll hear things like “Do you have the units ready for the cabbage yet?” all the time. And it’s also the only profession in which you can be stabbed by a butterfly. ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2006, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-phrases-youve-never-uttered-until-you-started-working-there/370725/32 "2006-08-31T18:36:26Z")
I’ve just joined the faculty of a Small Liberal Arts College. A colleague of mine, also new, asked at a faculty meeting, “You’ve all be using this term quite a lot, but I’m not sure what it means. Can you explain what ‘experiential learning’ is?” A riot nearly broke out. Apparently there is some…disagreement. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2006, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-phrases-youve-never-uttered-until-you-started-working-there/370725/33 "2006-08-31T18:37:01Z")
Tell the RPOC that the SMEs haven’t completeed the BRD by M1 so we’ll miss the R06.12 gate. ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2006, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-phrases-youve-never-uttered-until-you-started-working-there/370725/34 "2006-08-31T19:44:23Z")
I now work in an international shipping company. Never thought I’d be asking for a forty-foot reefer (RFR = ReFrigeRated container). ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2006, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-phrases-youve-never-uttered-until-you-started-working-there/370725/35 "2006-08-31T19:49:55Z")
Prior to entering Basic Training, I’d never considered uttering the phrase: “Fuck me in a half step” to indicate surprise. ---
**Author:** ![dwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwyr/32/363_2.png) [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2006, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-phrases-youve-never-uttered-until-you-started-working-there/370725/36 "2006-08-31T23:04:44Z")
> [@Antigen](#): > > We get pre-op cabbage specimens all the time in the blood bank. > (cabbage = CABG = coronary artery bypass graft) > > So you’ll hear things like “Do you have the units ready for the cabbage yet?” all the time. > > And it’s also the only profession in which you can be stabbed by a butterfly. And where a six-pack isn’t the fun kind. ---
**Author:** ![tashabot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tashabot/32/6250_2.png) [@tashabot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tashabot)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2006, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-phrases-youve-never-uttered-until-you-started-working-there/370725/37 "2006-08-31T23:42:46Z")
> [@myskepticsight](#): > > I worked in a pizza joint for years, and the one that comes to find first is: > > “Busting pies” > > As in, “Hey John, can you go bust pies? I have to do paperwork.” > > Bust pies = make pizza. We didn’t call it that. It was “Slapping dough.” So I would recurringly, in my spot as manager, have to say this: “\_\_\_\_, will you come slap this dough for a while? My arms are tired and I’m covered in cornmeal.” Where I work now, we get different ones. Such as: “I’m going to go shoot the mayor.” “Will you be back for the 4 p.m. meeting?” “Eh.” “I need 16 inches by three this afternoon. Badly.” “What did you slug it?” “We need to get a mugshot of you today.” “Briefs should be around 17 inches long, no matter what anyone says.” Obviously, I work at a newspaper. ~Tasha ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2006, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-phrases-youve-never-uttered-until-you-started-working-there/370725/38 "2006-09-01T00:01:57Z")
The railroad worker who gave a talk at my elementary school (our town was a railroad town at that point) said that if you hear an engineer leaning on the horn like that it probably means they have been involved in a fatal accident and they want to make sure they give warning. Sort of an anxiety/paranoia manifestation was my understanding. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-phrases-youve-never-uttered-until-you-started-working-there/370725/39 "2010-03-21T15:18:49Z")
“Today I’m working on Bend and Blow.” “They want some more of those frosted balls.” “We can never get enough strippers! Where the heck are the strippers?” All heard daily. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-phrases-youve-never-uttered-until-you-started-working-there/370725/40 "2010-03-21T16:45:41Z")
“Look at that zombie!” Please continue this discussion in a new thread. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-phrases-youve-never-uttered-until-you-started-working-there/370725.md?page=1)