typeofwords.com

So I was sitting at a meeting a few months ago, flipping through the new edition of the Basic Text and saw something that made me stop and pause. The only changes made to the 6th edition were to update the personal stories in the second half of the book, to reflect the worldwide growth of the fellowship. The stories had never been changed before and in order to reflect the diversity of Narcotics Anonymous now, the fellowship chose to take out the old ones and put in new ones.

But as I leafed through those stories, something caught my eye.

Many of the new stories contain footnotes, and explanations. Some of them are hilarious and I wondered about the process of choosing which terms to be explained. There is something about NA explaining what a “Deuce and a quarter” is that is funny to me. So I thought I would just gather all the footnotes together. People have no idea that this stuff is now in our literature.

 * “1.65 meters; 128 kilograms” (page 117)
* “A ‘deuce and a quarter’ is a Buick Electra 225.” (page 167)
* “‘Freshman year is the first year in high school” (page 176)
* “A Spanish idiom: Hacer una tempestad en un vaso de agua.” (page 191)
* “Fifty-one kilograms” (page 242)
* “Ninety-one pounds or forty-one kilograms.” (page 246)
* “Wairua is spirit.” (page 246)
* “Whanau is family.” (page 246)
* “‘The dole’ is government assistance.” (page 249)
* “Aroha is love and compassion.” (page 249)
* “Arohanui is big love.” (page 249)
* “‘Freshman’ year is the first year of high school.” (page 283)
* “‘Pharmacology’ is the science of drug action.” (page 286)
* “Yakuza is the Japanese mafia.” (page 293)
* “Informed the authorities; snitched (UK slang)” (page 328)
* “In 1990, there was a three-month-long armed conflict between the Mohawk Nation of Kanesatake and the government of Quebec in the town of Oka.” (page 339)
* “A parche is a close group of friends.” (page 356)
* “A barrio is a neighborhood.” (page 356)
* “Frisoles are a popular regional dish.” (page 357)
* “A high school equivalency degree” (page 375)

Know your literature.