Term of the Moment: Shaping

shape up, shaping, shape the hall--look for work (longshoreman’s term, lit. showing up to show you are in shape). Before most last-minute replacement work was routed through the union hall, men would show up to the theater at load-ins or loadouts with their tools, looking for work. When I first showed up at the replacement room in 1993, the late Bobby Hancox greeted me in a wreath of cigarette smoke, and said, "You shaping?" I nodded, not knowing what he meant.