Something that the esteemed members of The Avocado might not know about me is that I’m a huge fan of both film versions of Mildred Pierce: Michael Curtiz/Joan Crawford and Todd Haynes/Kate Winslet. I’ve seen the 1940s version years ago but I recently rewatched it to put it in more direct comparison to the Haynes version. Ultimately, you can’t go wrong with either, but Joan Crawford’s Mildred runs a diner, while Winslet’s Mildred runs a chicken and waffle restaurant. A stray cry from a passing waitress of “Adam and Eve on a raft” in the Curtiz film led me to my new favorite Wikipedia page: Diner lingo.

Without further ado, here are some of my favorite entries from the diner lingo Wikipedia page.

• Adam and Eve on a raft – two poached eggs atop toast
• Angels on horseback – oysters wrapped in bacon
• Cackleberries – eggs
• Battle Creek in a bowl – bowl of corn flakes cereal; Battle Creek, Michigan is the birthplace of breakfast cereal
• Guess water – soup
• Foreign entanglements – spaghetti
• Hemorrhage – ketchup
• Eve with a lid – apple pie, alluding to the forbidden fruit
• Maiden’s delight – cherries
• Dogs and maggots – crackers and cheese
• Jayne Mansfield – tall stack of pancakes
• Drown the kids – boiled eggs
• Punk – bread
• Burn the British – toasted English muffin
• Radio sandwich – tuna fish sandwich
• Wet mystery – beef stew
• Wreck ’em – scrambled eggs

And, above all:

• City juice – water (because water is supplied by the city)

Grab yourself a cold cup of city juice with your radio sandwich and enjoy this Night Thread!