Here's a regional dialect thingy that's gone under the radar:

You know those flat, rectangular, paper objects with that stuff on them that you scratch off with a coin or fingernail to reveal symbols which, when checked against instructions printed on said object, determine whether or not you've won some currency or other prizes? Well, growing up in slightly south of western Connecticut, we called them "scratch-off tickets," or "scratch-offs." I've come to realize that people from north of there call them "scratch tickets." I remember hearing this for the first time and thinking, "Uh, terrible job by your brain for accidentally omitting the word 'off' from that phrase." It was probably my New Hampshire cousins--who, last I checked, have still not won the "Megabucks," which we called "Lotto."

My friend Jen, from south-central (Connecticut), says "scratchies." But that could just be her cutesy short-form.*

Please write in from your perches all over the world and tell me what you call them. Or just get back to work.

Note: I thought of this because I saw an ad where you can get scratch-offs and win Sox tix when you buy a smoothie at Dunkin Donuts, which "scratch ticket" sayers call "Dunkies."


*"cutesy short-form": from that Wayne's World book, "Extreme Close-Up," when making fun of bands like Enuff Z'enuff.