RIVER BEND CHRONICLE GLOSSARY, ENTRY #7

GurUPed

Definition: grr-uhp-id, verb,

1. Frightful collaboration between massive indigestion and deep depression.

2. When a B-move blob meets a B-movie blob coming through the rye…

3. To make a low note sound high during a musical performance.

Sentence:

He gurUPed, gurUPed, a combination burp, hiccup, grunt. Each cough was the tolling of his lungs, and when I just could not listen to the Father Death Suite any longer, I tried to slip away and got caught. “Going to visit Hickey again? Are you?” (p. 213, River Bend Chronicle: The Junkification of a boyhood Idyll amid the Curious Glory of Urban Iowa)

RIVER BEND CHRONICLE GLOSSARY, ENTRY #6

Digs

Definition: noun,

1. Stale-smelling rented room where a humble writing club meets on Thursday night in the Quad-Cities.

2. Small house or apartment the club member heads toward after a post-meeting snack, the breaded Pork T and/or finger-dewing onion rings at Riefe’s Diner,

3. Upset earth of new I-80 real estate developments glimpsed on the drive home.

4. Drawer where manuscripts rest peacefully after criticism and revision, awaiting the next reader.

Sentence:

For a quarter Writers’ Studio members could purchase a bottle of warm cola from the club treasurer, John. Few did. When better “digs”  (as Cozie put it) were eventually located in Davenport, the beverages were left behind for the next thirsting tenant. (p. 27, River Bend Chronicle: The Junkification of a Boyhood Idyll amid the Curious Glory of Urban Iowa)

RIVER BEND CHRONICLE GLOSSARY, ENTRY #5

ICBM bonbons

Definition: eye-see-bee-em bon-bons, noun, plural:

1. Cold War candy marketed by various U.S. Presidents.

2. Healthy defense contractor profit margins

3. Employment for thousands of American citizens.

4. Deterers of global annihilation.

5. Assurers of global annhilation.

Sentence:

Nixon grinned like the proprietor of a twenty-four-hour candy shop–and the darndest thing happened behind that enamel curtain, involving salivary glands and glottal stops. The name of each tool of absolute destruction came out sounding like a mouthwatering treat. M-3 frappe. F-14 chew. ICBM bonbons. (p. 283, River Bend Chronicle: The Junkification of a Boyhood Idyll amid the Curious Glory of Urban Iowa)