Over 300 secret Islesboro island passwords & phrases, plus erudite essays; you'll never be at a loss for words. All the Maine-stays are here, plus those not fit to print. Squeaks, squawks, whirrs, swears, turkey shoots, cohogs, lighthouses, and a kit n'caboodle of fun. Don't let 'em talk behind your back. Sit up, take notice, and get schrod! The definitions collected in this book, and the personal recollections, give it an added interest. The author, who has traveled the world, has never quite gotten over her surprise at the strong personality, strength of community, and history inherent in Islesboro Island, a small 12-mile long island in the Penobscot Bay of Maine, where she has made her home for the past twenty years. The book reveals life's call and answer phenomenon, by drawing attention to the ideas, characteristics, and connections created by the environmental demands of island living, and the attitude of heart, mind, and spirit that are forged in response. If "Summer Ferry's on" and you've missed the last ferry, what do you say? Do you get upset? Not at all! You just "go uptah Quicksilver " which is running "right out straight". Suitable for library or bathroom reading, this is a new kind of dictionary, filled with the most essential words and phrases required for local island living. The words and phrases are juxtaposed with 18th century engravings, illustrating their conception in the past. I've assembled these choices out of several thousand collected during the twenty years I spent researching this book. Nobody asked me to do it; in fact, they asked me NOT to do it. This is a remarkable and peculiar feat of compulsive lexicography. It reveals dozens of little known island curiosities, many lying buried in tomes, histories, and maps of the island dating from the mid-1800's that are much too voluminous and peculiar for browsing. I have also rolled up my sleeves and exhumed many phrases and words from the graveyards of the obsolete and nearly forgotten, because in my humble opinion, parts of them are still alive and the rest deserve the chance. There are many terms here that merit wider currency. For example, islanders, for years, have referred to new additions and repairs with the phrase "Looks like it grew there!", indicating that nobody will detect the work as a modernization, repair or fake; it's suitable. It's far too useful a phrase to be restricted to its' application here. Mainlanders need this phrase. You'll find no unfitting evasive maneuvers, frustrating delicacy, pomposity, or cowardice. For example, when faced with the evolving impact of 501(C)(3) organizations to the island's infrastructure, I come right out and call a spade a spade. Some readers may complain that there's more than a smidgeon of slang here, and some may complain that there isn't enough. To this I say write your own dictionaries. This one is funny enough to reward casual browsers, and can serve as a supplement to more official island histories. Any phrases or words not in either place are probably not worth having at your fingertips, and none of this is intended to provide fuel for bad writing. SAMPLE PHRASES: Bed Lunch - A midnight snack. Everywheres - Similar to splatter and shatter. Flatlanders - Tourists. Hoppa - The necessary, e.g. the toilet. Island Beef - A deer, shot any time except during deer season. Mouth Plate - Dentures. Newbie - A sucker, or new island resident. NoSeeEm - A local fast flying carnivorous gnat. Railed 'Em - Something caught in large volume. Whatevah - An expression of exasperation similar to "Never try to teach a pig to sing; it's futile and it annoys the pig."
