Term of the Day: throw a fish back every once in a while"

"throw a fish back every once in a while"--when heads or men with full-time work at long-running shows suck up all the load-in work on Broadway, this is the response. A head friend of mine said "Throw a fish back once in a while," meaning don't take offered work and let other stagehands get a slice of the pie.

Term of the Day: Ham and Egging It

ham and egging it--an improvised, fast and not very good solution to a problem, rigging something up with the wrong materials. "We are ham and egging it. We should slow down and come up with a permanent solution." Also: "a ham-and-egg solution."

Term of the Moment: Death from Above

Death from Above: Borrowed from a slogan that I believe was coined during the Vietnam-era helicopter assaults, I heard a head carpenter whisper this last night as he watched when several stagehands ran out onstage when a hanger was flying out.

Term of the Day: stagehand rumor

stagehand rumor: (noun) a story or piece of gossip making the rounds in the Broadway Theater District that has been distorted by an extended game of telephone through many stagehand whispers and dosed with a certain amount of debt settling and character assassination. Often, the truth has been flayed alive and made into a wallet. "It is a stagehand rumor, so it might be 30 percent true."

Term of the Week: "using an earlier contract"

"Using an earlier contract": When a department head in a theater fights to get paid for something that is clearly not in the present contract, the roadman might say sarcastically, "He's using an earlier contract."

Term of the Day: slapped on the pee-pee

Slapped on the pee-pee--to get in trouble, to be reprimanded in a condescending, childish way from management. "The men on the fly floor were slapped on the pee-pee for talking loud during the quiet scenes in the play."

Word of the Day: Shoe-man Capote

Shoe-man Capote--a stupid stagehand, a shoe, "He's a real Shoe-man Capote," making a rhyme out of the dead novelist's name. (from Tim Altman, Broadway electrician)