S

Sadie Hawkins
In the Al Capp comic strip L'il Abner (1930's), Sadie Hawkins was 'the homeliest gal in all them hills,' so the mayor of Dogpatch staged a race in which the girls could chase the boys in hopes of catching husbands. It became a national institution. At a 'Sadie Hawkins dance,' a woman can turn the tables and invite a man to dance. [Colin Bessonette, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Nov 95]

sagging
the fashion of wearing the waist of your pants very low, usually below your butt, allowing the underpants to show; this practice is normally confined to adolescent boys, although girls practice it as well; seen in the Aurora, CO, area since about 1995

salmon day
swimming upstream all day to get screwed in the end; July 97, from an e-mail

sandalista

Wishy-washy members of the left wing, who (stereo)typically wear t-shirts, cutoffs, and sandals, and talk a lot about achieving peace, equality, etc., but rarely actually do anything to achieve said goals; October 1995, FIDO Words conference, thanks to Scott D. Rhodes

Santa

Clement Clarke Moore thought he might be remembered as the author of his age's leading Hebrew dictionary. Instead, he became famous for a poem he wrote for his six children and was reluctant to sign until 15 years after it was written. The little poem, "A Visit From St. Nicholas," written in 1822, defined what Santa Claus would become, adding essentials like the sleigh and reindeer as well as the chimney as the point of entry and exit. Not the least, the poem set Santa's visit on December 24 -- not December 5, the event of St. Nicholas' Day, as had been the tradition.

"Santa, as we know him, is a New York creation," said Steward Desmond, curator of an exhibition at the New York Historical Society. Even Santa's huggable, full-bodied look was created in New York by Thomas Nast, who illustrated Moore's poem in 1860 for Harper's Weekly. Indeed, only one major characteristic of the modern Santa seems not to be New York-made: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was the brainchild of Montgomery Ward & Co., the Chicago mail order giant, in 1939.

As one document at the Historical Society shows, Moore was a slave owner, and some historians have recounted a journey to the market to buy a Christmas turkey, the event said to have inspired the poem, in a sleigh driven by a slave.

The first time the poem was read, Christmas Eve 1822, a friend visiting from upstate New York was so taken with it she submitted it to the editor of the Troy Sentinel, who published it the next year. Then the poem appeared in a number of other New York newspapers, as well as several almanacs. It was anonymous in every case. Moore's name was first attached to the poem in 1837 when it was included in an anthology of New York poetry. Moore himself did not claim credit until 1844, when he included it in a book of his poems. But there has long been a debate about whether Moore really wrote the poem, in part because he seems stodgy to many scholars and because he failed to mention the Nativity, an odd omission considering he was a biblical scholar. Some claim a Poughkeepsie man, Henry Livingston, wrote and published the poem in a local paper, but no copy has ever been found. After examining original papers, Desmond believes Moore wrote it. But he nonetheless has concluded that the father of the modern Santa was a narrow, unplayful sort. "He was clearly a prig," the curator said. "He had a very closed mind." [Douglas Martin, The New York Times, December 1995]

Dear Editor: I am 8 years old. Some of my friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, 'If you see it in The Sun it's so.' Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus? Virginia Hanlon, 115 West 95th St

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world around him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your Papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they're not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, not even the united strength of all the strongest men that even lived could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside thta curtain and view the picture, the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God he lives, and lives forever. A thousand years from now, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood. Francis Pharcellis Church

SAPFU
Surpassing All Previous Foul-Ups

schmuck
describes a person lacking social skills, culture, intelligence, or a number of other failings; applied in much the same way as calling a person a dork, and in fact the word is Yiddish for penis; use with caution, if at all, in polite company

scifi, sci-fi

Short form of science fiction, attributed to Forrest J. Ackerman and Robert A. Heinlein, who each apparently originated the term independently, although Ackerman is credited with popularizing its use. The term is widely pronounced 'sigh fie,' although some say 'skiffy' for purposes sarcastic, derisive, or humerous. [Bill Warren, FIDO Film conference, Nov 95]

scratch
money -- I've heard of itchy palms or scratching your palm to indicate an interest in getting paid; Bob Klahn, Fidonet WORDS conference, Nov 95

screw
1: to copulate, usually used in a negative sense; You should have thought of that before you started screwing around on your wife.
2: to ruin, or to do poorly; He really screwed that up. compare with hose, fuck
3: with over, to deal with unfairly; My boss screwed me over. compare with hose, fuck
In the decades between 1960 - 1990, screw has become one of those words that is accepted in casual, even polite conversation when used in the euphemistic sense. People who would blanche at cursing might say He screwed that up without giving a passing thought to the curse they just used. Even in a more literal sense this word seems to be more and more widely accepted, as when gossiping about the affair of an acquaintence by saying, She's screwing around on her husband. Still, as the word comes from course language, it should be used very cautiously, if at all, in polite company.

scrunch
a variation on crunch that has fallen into such common use that it has gained legitimacy in print; Numbers on seven-digit [license] plates issued since 1992 are too scrunched together; The Denver Post, 25 July 1997

scurfing [1995, Colorado]
a variation on surfing; the surfboard is tied to a tree, and the scurfer rides a fast river current

sex
see | breasts | copulation | cunnilingus | ejaculate | erection | fellatio | masturbation | orgasm | penis | vagina

Shadow
[mil] AC-119G gunship; not sure if this is the 'official' nickname, or the one used by the crews

shellback
[mil] a sailor who has sailed across the equator and completed the necessary rites; see wog ; compare bluenose

shiksa

...many years ago I was dating a Jewish guy & when he called me a "shiksa" (usually as in my fair ...) it was a term of endearment; when his mother called me a "shiksa", it was an insult. Such is life, I fear. Shiksa comes from a word meaning a blemish or an abomination. [FIDO Words conference, May 96]

shit

Shit fire and spare the matches! an expression of surprise, often shortened to just Shit fire!; heard about Nov 91]

We're off! in a flurry of henshit!; heard about Nov 96 to describe leaving in a hurry