Big Bikes

Wicked Ride of The East

Often when I'm in other parts of the country, people attempt to do a Boston accent for me. For some reason they can't wrap their heads around the use of "wicked," or "pissah", or especially "wicked pissah." It is baffling to them that a term like "wicked" could possibly be used to describe something which is good. Perhaps it has something to do with how Merriam Webster defines wicked:

Main Entry: ¹wick·ed

Pronunciation: \ˈwi-kəd\

Function: adjective

Etymology: Middle English, alteration of wicke wicked, perhaps from Old English wicca

Date: 13th century

1 : morally very bad : evil
2 a : fierce, vicious b : disposed to or marked by mischief : roguish
3 a : disgustingly unpleasant : vile b : causing or likely to cause harm, distress, or trouble
4 : going beyond reasonable or predictable limits : of exceptional quality or degree

— wick·ed·ly adverb

I can see how a term which means "disgustingly unpleasant" might seem odd to use in a positive way.

Now Webster's doesn't bother defining "pissah," and you must subscribe to the site to see the unabridged dictionary which apparently contains the word "pisser." However, dictionary.reference.com does define "pisser" like so:

piss⋅er

–noun Slang: Vulgar.

1.	something extremely difficult or unpleasant.

2.	something or someone that is extraordinary.

---

Origin:
1350–1400; ME: one who urinates; see piss, -er ¹

Dictionary. reference. com and Merriam Webster, you are not helping. You can not possibly expect people of Scandinavian descent who live in the mid-west to come to any sort of understanding of the term "wicked pissah" based on these definitions.

For instance, the following sentence makes absolutely no sense if we stick to your definitions:

"Ya guy, me and Joey were out till three o'clock slammin' Jager-bombs after the Celts game last night, it was wicked pissah."

What the gentleman above is describing is an incredibly enjoyable experience he had with his friend Joey, but if we use the proper definitions for these words, we communicate another sentiment entirely:

"Ya guy, me and Joey were out till three o'clock slammin' Jager-bombs after the Celts game last night, it was morally very bad, evil, disgustingly unpleasant, very difficult, and did I already mention...unpleasant?"

And while yes, it may have been all those things too, the speaker is trying to tell us that he had a really, really good time, but I can see how this might confuse the Maggie Gundersons of the world.

Usually the impersonator says something like, "I couldn't find a paaahking spot in haaahvid yaaahd...aw, it was a wicked piss-er." You can try to explain to them how wrong this sounds to your Massachutian ears, but it will make no difference; they will continue to describe disgustingly unpleasant occurrences, following them with, "Aw it was a wicked piss-er."

So The Wicked Ride of The East, is for those of you who can't grasp the colloquial usage of the term "wicked, "The Really, Really, Good and Awesome, Very Nice, Enjoyable, Not Disgustingly Unpleasant Ride of The East." And it was all of those things.

Above, left to right, top to bottom: 1.) Tom Greene, human GPS. 2.) The bad news is, Will wore straight through his front brake pads, the good news is, he brought replacement pads...the bad news is, they were the wrong pads. Doh! 3.) Will flying brakeless. 4.) Andy up a rock ramp

Above: 1.) The day was beautiful, but still a little chilly for getting your feet wet, hence the hike-a-biking. 2.) Andy came ready for mud. 3.) There were hundreds of folks out on the ride. Once in a while we'd run into traffic, waiting in line as each technical move was conquered.

Why? Why wrong pads!