Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet

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Toronto-based rock trio (1984-91) credited with fusing the Punk style (Dead Kennedys e.g.) with Surf (the Ventures) into a distinctive but soon-imitated sound (sometimes called third-gen Surf).

The band usually recorded without vocals and has a number of EP's and CD's to its credit. Its last CD was released in 1995 but the band had effectively come to an end with the death of bassist Reid Diamond to cancer in 1991.

Televiewers may know Shadowy Men best from one particular song: "Having an Average Weekend," which was adopted by the Canadian satirical troupe Kids In The Hall as intro/outro music to the half-hour show of the same name.

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"What was that band on the radio that played those interesting chords?"

"Dude, you've never heard of Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet? They were huge in the eighties and early nineties. Even did the theme music for 'Kids In The Hall' on TV."

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by al-in-chgo March 1, 2010

priapic

Of or pertaining to the penis, penile.

The beauty of "priapic" is its semi-coded function: it can mean penile in a flaccid or an erect way.

"Priapic" is an adjective from name Priapus, but that word and the medical condition called priapism usually connote erection (i.e. "erection lasting four or more hours").

Todd: "Well, Robb, now that Men magazine and Playgirl have stopped publishing, what are you doing to encourage your little priapic enthusiasms?"

Robb: "Fuck you, gay boy, you've never heard of Internet porn? And it ain't little."

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by al-in-chgo May 10, 2010

logrolling

When a reviewer or critic who gets into a tradeoff of critical praise or "You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" situation. Implicitly or by agreement, one reviewer exchanges praise (often fatuous) with another in the hopes his inflated regard will find its way into publicity, advertising copy, book-jacket blurbs and the like and increase the other's visibility (and sell more books). The favor is expected to be returned, and at some point is. Probably descended from the literal use of logrolling as a pioneer sport, in which neither participant can stay on the round, floating timber unless one is pedaling frantically one way, one the other, although the symbolism invoking a mutual-gratification pact analogous to masturbation cannot be denied.

In the 1980s, SPY magazine ran a regular column called "Logrolling In Our Time" giving exact instances of such tit for tat.

-- "Oh, God. This is logrolling at its worst. A___ says on the dust jacket of B____'s new novel that 'a new American voice is born.' Three months later B____, now bestselling author, says that A____'s latest textbook is 'unchallengeable in its supremacy in this field.'"

-- "They belong to a mutual admiration society, intellectually speaking."

-- "I'm sorry; did you say "intellectual mastur---"

-- "Shhh!"

by al-in-chgo June 13, 2013

centsation

Narcissistic self-reference that an online contributor can use to signify that he or she has reached the hundredth-post marker of Urban Dictionary submissions.

(A compound of CENTenary (or CENTennial number) + senSATION. ;)

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-- "That's it! U.D. published submission Number One Hundred of mine!" -- "You've reached your centenary on that count. Now you've become a centsation in your own mind, haven't you?"

by al-in-chgo June 26, 2010

P.U.

Pronounced "Pee Yew" and also spelled "P U" or spelled out "Pfew!", "Phew!," or "Pee-yew!" this aging American interjection, often accompanied with a pinched nose or similar disgusted gesture, indicates the existence of a foul or overpowering odor. Its use seems to have peaked in the mid-Twentieth Century as a semi-euphemism for olfactory revulsion, but is still occasionally used today.

Betty: Archie, what happened to you? P U! (Waves hand in front of face)

Archie (red-faced): I fell in a pickle barrel at the grocery store.

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Sweet Dee Reynolds (in TV show "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," ca. 2010): Moms stink! P.U.!!

(episode "Frank Reynolds' Little Beauties," September 29, 2011)

by al-in-chgo May 24, 2018

all in

Originally and still a poker metatphor, 'all in' has also come to mean a situation whose subject is unreservedly involved, without qualification. Fully committed. In this sense the term "all in" is almost the same as its denotative opposite, "all out," as in all-out warfare.

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All in means you don't stop for Sundays.

All in means nobody can talk you out of it.

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(from New York Times online, October 17, 2011):

Mr. Immelt’s remarks took on the tone of a halftime pep talk. He said that with a clearer regulatory structure, an increased export base and an “all-in” business climate, the United States would be able to compete on a global front.

---Note that the Times used the term 'all in' with a hyphen separating the two words, which is customary when such a term is used as a single adjective. (Compare: "Frank is just flat-out broke".) Also note that the Times put slightly distancing quotation marks around the phrase in the above Immelt citation. This probably means that the Times writer recognized the phrase as a colloquialism, not yet fully acceptable standard written English, in this extended (non-poker) usage. Some grammarians (cf. Strunk and White, THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE), object to ironic or distancing quotation marks on the theory that if a term or phrase is known to most readers, introduction or contexting is not necessary. Most likely, though, the New York Times' elaborate style sheet does not forbid such use.

by al-in-chgo October 17, 2011

fapfapfap

Originally the onomatopoetic rendition of male masturbation in Japanese manga (erotic comics), using the Roman letters. "Fapfapfap" has come to represent male masturbation in general, and by extension the slapping sounds of any anal intercourse, and male/female penile-vaginal intercourse as well.

-- What did you think of that new actress?

-- HOT! Fapfapfap.

-- Easy for you to say.

-- Give me some privacy and my dick will make the noise.

by al-in-chgo May 24, 2011