Bill Peters's definitions

eighty-six

Restaurant lingo meaning "take an item off the menu." By extension it can also mean to get rid of almost anything (including doing away with somebody). The Urbandictionary entry attributing the term to the 1980s is erroneous. I worked as a short order cook in the late 1960s and it was in use in a half dozen NewYork city joints where I worked. Oldtimers say the term was around in the 1940s and that the derivation is Article 86 of the New York Liquor Code which describes the circumstances under which liquor should be withheld from a customer.

Restaurant manager: "we ran out of chipped beef . . . eighty-six the shit on a shingle."

by Bill Peters August 21, 2006

brown paper bag school

Perjorative term for Fisk, Spellman College and Howard Universities, all of which have in the past have been allegedly guilty of refusing to admit students with skin tone darker than a brown paper bag.

"No way am I going to a brown paper bag school. I'm applying to 'Skegee (Tuskegee)."

by Bill Peters August 20, 2006

Walking Vagina

A persistent male whiner; a male pussy. Also simply abbreviated in chatrooms as WV.

Stop being such a Walking Vagina and take it like a guy.

by Bill Peters August 3, 2004

side hustle

Sideline that brings in cash; something other than your main job. Maybe playing weekend gigs or life coaching. SELLING AMWAY IS NOT A SIDE HUSTLE -- it's just a stupid way to alienate your friends.

When start up your own business you probably want to get some side hustle going. Maybe a small low stress consulting job on how to get a side hustle going.

by Bill Peters October 9, 2006

something else

Person or happenstance with unusual, funny, quirky, and strange -- perhaps bizzarre -- qualities

Michael Jackson is FOR SURE something else.

by Bill Peters October 14, 2006

Doodly-squat

Of no significance, rank or importance. The word “doodle” was in wide slang usage throughout the 19th Century to mean a fool, a clueless soldier or a penis. The term was in wide use during the Great Depression and was joined by the updated version "diddly-shit" in the 1960s.

“My gal is red hot (Your gal ain't doodly-squat)”
-- from the oft-covered 1950s song "Red Hot"

by Bill Peters October 7, 2006

five percent

A doctrine which emerged in 1960s as an offshoot of the Nation of Islam. The belief is that mankind began about one million years ago in the Mideast (Black people are today refered to as "Asiatic Black Man.") The doctrine holds that 85% of the people are presumed to be chumps, spending their life deluded and ripped off. 10% do the ripping off, are in the scams of entertainment, sports, politics, religion, business, etc., and live as fat cats but in sin. Only 5% have the knowledge and moral standing to be the world’s teachers. Non-black people are not excluded from the ranks of the potential righteous and the doctrine holds that one's works and life are more important than skin color.

The doctrine has lately undergone a vigorous ressurgence thanks in large part to hip-hop artists, particularly Busta Rhymes, Wu-Tang, Rakim and Big Daddy Kane. The movement now refers to itself as the “Nation of Gods and Earths.”

Despite trappings, the movement has only the most tenuous links to Islam. Most importantly, adherrants believe in several gods, that the words of prophets have been distorted beyond recognition and that the Five Percent are in themselves, Gods or at least the Gods' agents.

"I wanna big up Five Percent Nation Of Islam, Yeah!"

-- Busta Rhymes, from "New York Shit"

by Bill Peters October 8, 2006