THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 8, 1995 TAG: 9512080508
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: GUY FRIDDELL
LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines
Arthur K. Fisher is at it again, bringing out a sequel to his ``Eastern Shore Wordbook'' which was published in 1986.
The new 26-page paperback, ``Entertaining Words from Eastern Shore,'' includes a page of sayings from that blessed peninsula hanging down from Maryland like a Christmas stocking stuffed with goodies.
I doubt there's a better way to characterize a loquacious body than to say, as they do over there, ``She can talk down a flood tide!''
There's as saltiness in their words than you seldom find on the mainland, unless you're conversing with an emigre.
How better could you describe a thin man than to note, ``He's just breath and britches?''
Do you know what a green pea pie is on the Eastern Shore?
Peas and dumplings.
And for poetry, can you beat the description of ``a lot of nurses'' for whitecaps?
A dweller on the Shore says, ``There are a lot of nurses on the bay.''
That gives you a quick, vivid picture.
Over there, one's first cousin is ``own cousin'' and a ``pus-gutted'' man is one who is overweight. ``Sloor'' is the mud on the bottom of a boat. A ``mill day'' is one during which a person is out of sorts.
``Mungering'' is a waterman's word that I had heard and used without knowing precisely how it was defined. It smacked of illegality.
What a dawning of understanding to read that it means ``looking around somebody else's oyster grounds with the intention of stealing.''
Thereabouts, the residents speak of moldy fruit as ``foughty.''
And of food with insufficient salt as ``fresh,'' observing, ``This meat is fresh.''
The Eastern Shore version of cut a caper is ``to cut a flutter.''
Three pages of tall tales include one from an old carpenter who discovered in a house he was restoring an ancient grandfather's clock even older than he was.
``It was old, very old,'' the carpenter said. ``I'll tell you just how old it was.
``The pendulum of that clock had swung back and forth so many times that the shadow of the pendulum had worn a hole in the wall.''
Administrator of Accomack County, Art Fisher is a native of the Shore. He has gathered its expressions for 30 years during his work as teacher, school administrator college supervisor of student teachers, stockbroker, executive director of the Delmarver Advisory Council, and observer of humankind.
The book is on sale at the Book Bin in Onley, Va., P.O. Box 459, zip 23418. The book costs $6.95 plus $4 for tax and UPS shipment.
Arthur K. Fisher is at it again, bringing out a sequel to his ``Eastern Shore Wordbook,'' which was published in 1986.
The new 26-page paperback, ``Entertaining Words from Eastern Shore,'' includes a page of sayings from that blessed peninsula hanging down from Maryland like a Christmas stocking stuffed with goodies.
I doubt there's a better way to characterize a loquacious body than to say, as they do over there, ``She can talk down a flood tide!''
There's a saltiness in their words than you seldom find on the mainland, unless you're conversing with an emigre.
How better could you describe a thin man than to note, ``He's just breath and britches?''
Do you know what a green pea pie is on the Eastern Shore?
Peas and dumplings.
And for poetry, can you beat the description of ``a lot of nurses'' for whitecaps?
A dweller on the Shore says, ``There are a lot of nurses on the bay.''
That gives you a quick, vivid picture.
Over there, one's first cousin is ``own cousin'' and a ``pus-gutted'' man is one who is overweight. ``Sloor'' is the mud on the bottom of a boat. A ``mill day'' is one during which a person is out of sorts.
``Mungering'' is a waterman's word that I had heard and used without knowing precisely how it was defined. It smacked of illegality.
What a dawning of understanding to read that it means ``looking around somebody else's oyster grounds with the intention of stealing.''
Thereabouts, the residents speak of moldy fruit as ``foughty.''
And of food with insufficient salt as ``fresh,'' observing, ``This meat is fresh.''
The Eastern Shore version of cut a caper is ``to cut a flutter.''
Three pages of tall tales include one from an old carpenter who discovered in a house he was restoring an ancient grandfather's clock even older than he was.
``It was old, very old,'' the carpenter said. ``I'll tell you just how old it was.
``The pendulum of that clock had swung back and forth so many times that the shadow of the pendulum had worn a hole in the wall.''
Administrator of Accomack County, Art Fisher is a native of the Shore. He has gathered its expressions for 30 years during his work as teacher, school administrator college supervisor of student teachers, stockbroker, executive director of the Delmarver Advisory Council, and observer of humankind.
The book is on sale at the Book Bin in Onley, P.O. Box 459, zip 23418. The book costs $6.95 plus $4 for tax and UPS shipment. by CNB