Vocab Words

On the Shuttle Bus to see “Batman Begins” in Port Canaveral, some of the dancers from England and Australia taught us some slang words. It started when Christina, from Australia, told us that when she was little people would rest four knuckles onto one of their hands and then extend the display asking people to “smell my cheese.” When the unsuspecting victim would lean in, the four knuckles would shoot out and hit the person in the nose. This is a far more violent game than anything I ever played as a child and only confirms my belief that Australians are a hardier stock.

From there Faye and Laura (who we called “Nora” for the first two weeks due to cross-continental miscommunication) taught us a bunch of English slang. If something is good it’s “the dog’s bollocks.” However, if you were in Australia, the same good thing would be “the duck’s nuts.” Good things can also be called “trousers,” as in “Cillian Murphy is trousers in ‘Batman Begins.’” Alternatively, Liam Neeson playing a mysterious new-age mentor for the umpteenth time in the same movie would be termed “pants.” Parents are designated as “me old Doris” and “me old Man.” And an Australian expression of hope after a disappointing experience is “she’ll be apples." For example, “I thought ‘Batman Begins’ was just all right, but I heard Katie Holmes won’t be in the sequel, so she’ll be apples.” So far, my use of these new expressions have been welcomed by the ship community at large and have been found to be natural and unforced.