Archive for December, 2006

Like any group of friends or specialized field, we here at Open Source have our own form of lingo-bingo that would probably confuse a newcomer to the office. In fact, it does. Every time we get a new intern we find ourselves having to explain what the heck a weenie beenie is, or why David murmurs “Sweet lax!” when he books an especially hard-to-get guest. So in honor of our show about the word of the year, here is an insider’s glossary.

Awesometown – a positive exclamation of approval. Can also be used ironically. For example, Brendan (who started using the word after reading about this series on Boing Boing) might use it after booking a great guest, and then again when the guest informs him last minute he or she can’t be on the show after all. When used sincerely, the word is usually pronounced as one word: Awesometown! When used ironically, it’s usually pronounced as two: Awesome. Town.

The double baroo?! [J. Scott Shearer / Flickr]

Baroo – onomatopoeia representing the sound a cute dog makes when cocking its head inquisitively. Pronounced like a question (ba-ROO?) this expression means something close to “Huh?!” Inspired by the blog Cute Overload, which has many great examples of baroos in practice. You’ll hear this one from me at least, oh, once a day.

Blog Juice – 1) hype or currency in the blogosphere: “Colin’s North Korean missile feature that got boing-boinged had total blog juice.” 2) bloggy elements: “There are no bloggers booked for this show right now. It really needs more blog juice.”

BTDT – Been There, Done That. Anything, especially a show idea, that is expected, tired, obvious, or overly conventional. The opposite of SCD.

SCD – Something Completely Different. Anything, especially any show idea, which is new, unexpected, or outside the box. The opposite of BTDT. At one point, this was in the running to be the name of the show.

Slightly Different Muffin – something slightly outside of your normal routine, especially with regard to food. To have a slightly different muffin every day is to eat something other than what you normally would. It’s also Jim Leff’s guiding philosophy on how to live your life.

Stationality – good for stations. “Man, making these promos for pledge week is a pain in the butt, but it is good stationality.” Sing to the tune of Personality.

The actual Weenie Beenie in Arlington, VA. [Alfred O. Taylor / Walk Arlington]

Sweet Lax – a positive exclamation. This phrase comes from David’s high school days in Syracuse, where lacrosse players topped the social hierarchy. They said silly things like “Dood, sweet lax!” (get it, lacrosse?) to express approval. David and his friends started saying these things ironically, but the irony was slippery, and before long these phrases crept into their vocabulary for real. And now they have crept into ours.

Wackitude – also, Wackitudinous. Especially strange or wacky. Almost any noun or adjective can be modified with the -tude and -tudinous suffixes, but wackitude is the most common version.

Weenie Beenie – A person we can count on to be available for the show on short-notice, especially when booking a show the day of. This term actually dates back to Mary’s days as a producer for The MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour. The joke was that if they needed a guest for that night’s show, all they had to do was walk around the corner to the Weenie Beenie hamburger joint and pick up a stray congressperson or policy wonk who had camped out in hopes of being on live TV.