New Slang

New Yorkers say awesome things and confusing things. There's just little differences that sometimes make me cock my head and give the "huh" face. I find myself fascinated by the tidbits of dialogue I've been picking up from all these Yanks up here. What's even more fascinating is when I find myself using those words without a second thought like some kind of linguistic chameleon. I figured I'd share a few of my favorites. Bearing in mind that I don't or can't use all of these phrasings, they're still quite rad. Yes I said rad.

1) "What's good?" - As far as I can gather, this is a variation of "What's up?". Sometimes used as a phone greeting, or to ask someone what's going on with something. It can be modified in several ways such as "What's really good?", "What's goody?" or my favorite "What's goodingtons?"

2) "On line" - New Yorkers don't stand "In Line" they stand "On line" apparently. I don't get it either. It makes it extra confusing when you are at Petco trying to buy a squeaky ball for your dog and you're texting your wife. You would classify yourself as "In Line". Then a gal comes up and says "Are you online?" You look at your phone and then wonder why this girl cares about that and you respond "Nope." Then she cuts in front of you and buys her dog food, leaving you to curse about how rude that was. (Later I realized, she meant to ask was I in line. Silly Yanks.)

3) Cross streets - It's no longer valid to just give an address. You have to give the cross streets when you're ordering late night sushi or trying to get a cabbie to get you somewhere. For example, Barrio Chino, a great little hole in the wall restaurant in the Lower East Side is at 253 Broome Street. But someone's gonna ask you what the cross streets are, and you gotta know that it's between Orchard and Ludlow.

4) Strunzo - I believe this is Italian. It means "Piece of shit". So when someone annoys you, you can affectionately refer to them as a "Strunzo" or you can mix it up and modify it. Like "Look what that Strunz did" or "This place is like Stunzylvania today."

5) Official Tissue - I don't know many people who use this one, but I think it's so ridiculous that I had to comment on it. From what I gather, it means "legit, cool, top-notch". Like "The new iPhone is official tissue, son." Or "My flatscreen LCD is official tissue."

6) Pal - If I've adopted any wordage since I've been up here, I've adopted "pal." I find "pal" to be the most hilarious adaptable word yet and I've taken full advantage of it. I never used to use Pal, I'd instead sub "dude, brother, friendo" but now, pal is it.

7) Scumbag - I'm glad this one resurfaced. I don't know that I've ever used "scumbag" before I got up here but it really fits the bill on occasion why you want to insult someone and don't feel like swearing. It also allows you to ration your use of strunzo.

That's all I've got for now. Hopefully next time I'll be full of more new and exciting words to share.