A term often used by those living in the North-Eastern United States, where rapidly changing winter weather creates slippery conditions for pedestrians without warning. Similar to taking a "wicked shitter," going "ass over tea kettle" describes the motion of the body as it somersaults uncontrollably on a driveway or down a set of basement stairs, for example. The tea kettle is valued during cold winter months and is used metaphorically to assert that something important (along with one's ass) has been damaged in the fall.
Not realizing that the driveway froze over, I went ass over tea kettle while goin' out to get the mail.
A Shackteau is a humble, weather-beaten, structurally questionable shelter located in a spectacular or highly coveted place—Wales, Jackson Hole, Sun Valley, Crested Butte, coastal Maine, the Alps—where the building itself may be worth almost nothing, but the dirt, view, access, and mythology make it absurdly valuable.
In use:
Shackteâu - We thought it was an abandoned shed until the realtor called it a rare alpine Shackteâu with unobstructed views and listed it for $2million.