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Wicked Good Guides / Wicked Good Guide to Boston English /

K-L

Compiled by Adam Gaffin

Kegga

A beeah bash.

Killa

Wicked cool or funny: "Did you see his new TA? It's killer!" or "I rented that movie 'Dumb and Dumber' - what a killer!"
Elizabeth Kelley

Lace-curtain

Adjective for a three-decker with delusions of grandeur.
KC Black

Lake, The

What outsiders call Nonantum, one of the "villages" of Newton. "No one calls it (Nonantum)," says Newton Corner native Lucia Kegan. "EVERYONE calls that area 'the Lake.'. I think it is called that because of Silver Lake which dried up, so there is no lake now, but you could hear someone say, 'Where's Joey live?' 'He lives down the Lake.' The Lake is so Italian that once a year they paint all their fire hydrants and street stripes red, white and green.

Light dawns ova Mahblehead

The point in a conversation at which a particularly dense person finally comprehends something: "I asked Debbie and Rick if I could come along, too, and they were all, like 'We kinda got plans,' and stuff. Then I was all, 'Light dawns over Marblehead! Hel-LO!' They wanna be alone together!" At least, that's what Laura Mitchell says. Kathy Palmacci says the expression is actually "light dawns ON Mahblehead:" "I've lived in Somerville my entire life, and we've always said that," she says.

Possibly the most incongruous use of the phrase, eva, was in the movie "Cocktail, when a City College of New York professor yells it at Tom Cruise.

Live 'n' kickin'

The only kind of lobstahs you'll find at Boston deli countahs:

Luft

Lieutenant in the Boston Fire Department: "He's a Luft on a Laddeh Fouah in Eastie."
Booger McCaul