You're listening to Away With Words, the show about language, and how we use it.

I'm Grant Barrett.

And I'm Martha Barnett.

Listener Justin Masterson shared some slang from his favorite hobby with us, and that includes

terms like drain, gobble hole, and live catch.

And Grant, I know you know what this slang is from.

Right.

I don't need a death say for that.

That's pinball language.

It is indeed a drain can be both a noun, and that's the space between the flippers where

you lose the ball, and it can be a verb, and that's the act of losing a ball.

And a gobble hole is a hole that swallows of the ball, as you might imagine.

And a live catch, I love this one, that's when you hit the flipper so that it hits the

ball at the exact right time to cancel the ball's momentum.

Right.

And then it just balances on the flipper, and then you can have a moment to think about

what you want to do with that ball, where you want to send it.

You know, you're going to, if there's a special place to get more points, or get a multi-ball

going.

There's a satisfaction, and that isn't there, just balancing it there, and deciding where

you're going to send it.

Oh, I expect many hours with the Adam's family pinball game.

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