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coffee row
DCHP-2 (May 2016)
Spelling variants:Coffee Row, Coffee-Row
n. — ironic, condescending; Saskatchewan
a term for the kinds of informal sports talk and local gossip that takes place in coffee shops and diners.
Type: 1. Origin — Coffee row is virtually restricted to Canada (see Chart 1); today, as Chart 2 shows, it is mainly found in Saskatchewan. Coffee row seems to have originally referred to sports talk, as in the 1935 and 1948 quotations, and was once used more widely across Canada. Now it appears to be preserved in Saskatchewan. Today, coffee row is no longer limited to sports talk, but to local gossip of all kinds.
See also COD-2, s.v. "coffee row", which is marked "Cdn (Sask.)".
See also COD-2, s.v. "coffee row", which is marked "Cdn (Sask.)".
See: fowl supper
Quotations
1935
World Series' Strategy Hums Along Coffee Row IN HIS EFFORTS to find a solution that is guaranteed to keep those pleasant-looking winning streaks from fading from the fabric of a ball team, Charlie Grimm is worrying no harder than Coffee Row these nights.
1948
The city's First Presbyterian Church, 10 blocks from "Coffee Row" where the blunt Dryburgh discussed and argued about the sports world, was packed with sportsmen, cohorts, businessmen, fellow newspaper men from neighboring cities, and many persons who had known "Dave" chiefly through his dry-humored, direct column.
1962
The boys were not whooping it up in the Malamute saloon but they were giving an airing to their views in coffee row generally.
1963
In an attempt to centralize all sports trash and avoid blame for it, our honorable editors created a garbage section under the name of Coffee-Row.
1982
But such literal comparisons serve poorly as a barometer of WCC strength in the taverns and on coffee row of rural Saskatchewan.
1989
They space those periodic defeats like Saturday night's to the Bruins for purposes of generating a little controversy along coffee row, and not much else.
1993
The hot topic along coffee row this week has had nothing to do with Pavel Bure's relentless pursuit of the team scoring record of 45 goals in a single NHL season.
2003
No matter how many times officials deny it, the talk on coffee row and at auction markets is still strong that the perceived U.S. reluctance to reopen the border to Canadian cattle is at least partly a function of recent strains in the political relationship between the two countries.
2007
A wonderful story in Monday's Regina Leader-Post by Rob Vanstone detailed the trials and tribulations of the Moen family and of Stewart Valley where, Sheryl Moen said, "I think the only thing left is the Co-op store. That's kind of the coffee row where everything gets discussed and you find out all the news."
References
- COD-2
Images
Chart 1: Internet Domain Search, 23 Aug. 2012
