By the way, how old is Paul and Storm…respectively, of course.

Even though I played the Atari 2600 when i was about six years old still can remember combat like it was yesterday. I especially like the ping pong ball version of the tank battles and getting the angles on the jets juuuust right so you could fly through the screen and shoot them again just when they stopped spinning. Made for some maddening battles with the friends.

While not as grammatically odd as “down cellar” there’s also “Down the Shore”. Ironically, I never really used this growing up (b/c I was already *at* the Shore) but I use it quite frequently now that I live 200+ miles south of the NJ shore line. So I tell people I’m driving north for the holidays to go down the shore.

Methinks I need to seek out this fabled taco cart next time I’m in Rosslyn.

We had a restaurant on the outskirts of town called The Cotton Patch. When I was growing up, the place was completely awesome and had some of the best food ever.

However, all of the waitresses (you’ll notice I do not say “servers”) were dressed like Aunt Jemima.

Of course, at the time, I thought nothing of it. But later, as I grew up and grew a brain in my head, I realized just how demeaning it was.

The place burned down about the time I reached double digits, was rebuilt in the next town over (Union, Alabama) just off the Interstate, and the outfits remained until relatively recently when the place was sold and the new owners finally discontinued the uniforms.

Other than Sambo’s, I think that’s the most blatantly racist place I’ve ever been to.

The regionalism I grew up with and hate with a passion is “warsh,” as is,” Remember to warsh the dishes.” I don’t understand where it comes from but I hear it all the time back home.

@Robin – Your dorm sounds like my kind of place.

Being in the nerd dorm in college, we had great fun comparing regionalisms — soda vs pop, sprinkles vs jimmies* (as in ice cream toppings), water fountain vs bubbler, various different pronunciations of common words. Like I said, nerd dorm.

@Sarah — I’ve always heard the Canadian pronunciation of about as something closer to “a boat”. At least, from the folks on Degrassi and due South. I think they must beat it out of the actors in Vancouver these days.

It’s not specifically racist, but there’s a Chinese place in my town called Yum Mee. More of a vaguely racist pun.

(* I’ve tried to stop using “jimmies” to refer to chocolate sprinkles, as it apparently has racist origins.)

I found myself saying “taco cart” at the prompt. I am somewhat ashamed.