Dear Grammar Girl, This is What I Had for Supper Last Night

Even by itself, a BLT is not what most would consider "lighter evening fare".  I love you Grammar Girl, but here in Iowa, "supper" is a colloquial word for what might be called "dinner" in most urban areas. It's not about quantity. Heck, no.  My BLT supper at my brother's house last night was accompanied by potato chips, his homemade pickles, watermelon--and there would have been two kinds of pasta salad, too, but we devoured all that for lunch--which, by the way, back when I was growing up here in the 1960s was called "dinner," even though we didn't live on a farm.  Nowadays, from what I hear, most people do say "lunch" instead of "dinner," but dinner is still "supper."

And it's worth noting that soda here is called "pop." If you order soda, people might ask if you want scotch with that--or if you mean you want just plain seltzer water--or if you mean you want an ice cream soda.

And if there's been difficulty, and people are hoping to get something accomplished, you might hear them say, "God willin' and the crick don't rise." Yup. The body of water that runs through my hometown is the "crick." Not "creek."

And I've heard some folks say, "zinc" when they mean "sink." But I think that's a little old-timey. I'll be listening for more Iowa-speak while I'm hear watching the corn grow. I'll get back to you on that, if God's willin' and the crick don't rise.