Some helpful “Lorraine” vocabulary to guide your reading. Will be adding words as I go. Let me know if I miss any!

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dollar van (noun) a quicker way to get up and down Flatbush Avenue if you are okay with possibly risking your life and some really rockin’ music. Also, just because your friend tells you that you have to yell out your stop really loud doesn’t mean that the lady in front of you isn’t going to give you the look of death when you do so. (note to self: maybe not quite THAT loud.)

fat (adj.) purely a descriptive term; I don’t consider it to be derogatory, so why do we label it as such?

“friend” (noun) nasty, nuclear-war-surviving creatures, aka cockroaches.

gentrification (noun) something you need to stay a few steps ahead of in order to get an apartment you can afford. Bad for poors because it takes away stores they need and replaces them with $4 coffee places.

Grandma Chicken (noun) oven-baked chicken I make that my grandmother always used to make. Even though I’m pretty sure she got the recipe off the side of a Bisquick box, I still call it “Grandma chicken” because it makes me think of her.

hipster (noun) Annoying Gen Y/Millennial children who are ruining Brooklyn through the wonders of gentrification. And I’m totally not jealous of their seemingly unending stream of disposable (read: Mom and Dad) income or their relatively pain-free bodies. Not at all.

lobster (noun) My code word for marijuana, or as some people like to call it, the devil’s lettuce. Long story.

#notforpoors (adjective? noun? dang, I suck at parts of speech)  Usually something I should not be spending money on, or anything that is over my budget. Inspired by the tagline on the amazing blog Park Slope Family Circus, “because Peanuts is for Poors”.

pigeon (noun) A rat with wings.