Term of the Day: keeps his cards close to the vest

keeps his cards close to the vest-- to not reveal much about your plans, to hide opinions or personal decisions. Old poker Term.

Term of the Day: bad juju

bad juju-- bad karma, bad aura. Originally juju is a reference to spells and potions. Juju is believed to be a Hausa word, from Nigeria.

Term of the Day: dinosaur balls

dinosaur balls--testicles of an old stagehand, referencing control of these balls. May be used with old female stagehands, if you want. "After the old head kept having confrontations with the house manager, the theater owners came down on him. The house manager has his dinosaur balls in a vise."

Term of the Day: stagehand appropriate

 stagehand appropriate--something offbeat you'd imagine a stagehand doing. "I meet my accountant at the Rum House to get my taxes done. I guess you could say that is stagehand appropriate."

Term of the Day: "I speak fluent Irish American"

"I speak fluent Irish American"--since Local #1 still has a large number of Irish American members, it is useful to understand the Irish American psychology. There are specific subsets, like the Westies of Hell’s Kitchen, Rockland County Irish, Queens Irish and Long Island Irish.

Historical Term: "Irish affirmative action is Italians"

 "Irish affirmative action is Italians": Local #1 was a traditionally Irish union until about 30 years ago.  In my unscientific survey, the next largest group is Italians. In our multi-culti tumultuous New York City, Irish and Italian neighborhoods often abutted each other and the two ethnic groups would intermarry.

Archaic Term of the Day: Donkey/Narrowback

Donkey/Narrowback: In Irish slang, a donkey is a new immigrant, who does hard  labor. A narrowback is a pejorative term for an Irish-American, whose back muscles are not that well formed becasue they are not accustomed to hard labor.  I like to say that "I was born a narrowback, but have become a donkey."

St. Patrick's Day terminology: Irish exit

Irish exit--to leave without saying goodbye.

Term of the Day: took his winnings off the table

took his winnings off the table--to shut down a profitable show. "The new producer took his winnings off the table, shutting down his profitable musical and refusing to gamble through the bleak winter months."

Term of the Day: Irish twins

Irish twins--children born less than a year apart, often just ten months in between.

Term of the Day: dinosaurs don't kill dinosaurs

dinosaurs don't kill dinosaurs-- on the reluctance of the often older theater owners to push out older heads.

Term of the Day: whiff of a sociopath

whiff of a sociopath--when you realize the person you are working with is quite off and possibly dangerous, someone with sociopathic tendencies. "I only met two guys like him in the last 20 years, but when I worked with the ex-bank teller all day, he talked nonstop about creepy things. I came away with the whiff of a sociopath off of him."