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!