Get Stuffed

When you're in the radio room taking phone calls or despatching jobs it's quite an interesting environment.  For starters we used to be quite violent towards each other verbally.  This was probably a product of the hyped up feeling on a Friday or Saturday night.  One of our radio operators' favourite expressions was "Get Stuffed" and he could work it into conversation in a number of creative ways.

His favourite was to say it after a radio transmission to a car, in earshot of those of us in the radio room, but with his foot OFF the transmit button (we used a footswitch, which frees up your hands - a real pain in the neck when they used to break down).  The transmissions would be along the lines: "Car 88 to control?", "Yes Car 88 {get stuffed, you goose}" with the bits in { }s NOT being transmitted.  Occasionally his timing was out, unfortunately, and a few unsuspecting drivers were wondering why they had been singled out for an insult.  I assure them, they were NOT being singled out.  Everyone got the stuffing.

It's amazing how versatile an expression "get stuffed" actually is.  Not only can it be used as an insult, but a confirmation, a general greeting, a question of integrity, and an affirmation.

The practice was rather contagious.  Eventually we all were telling each other to get stuffed, and working it into general conversation.

"Oh, I had a bad morning, things didn't go right"   "Go on, get stuffed."

"I don't like this new procedure on hirings from Fanny's nightclub"   "Ah well, get stuffed".

"I put my order in for lunch across the road and they got it wrong"   "Get stuffed?"

We had a new general manager appointed after the retirement of a guy who'd been working there for twenty years, and he wasn't doing so well.  His position was transferred to the title "Operations Manager" and a new general manager was appointed.  Yep, he got stuffed.

Which was quite interesting for him, as it explained a lot.  A few days earlier he had been casually walking into the radio room and listening to all the "get stuffed"s being bandied around.  I suppose it prepared him for what was inevitably coming to him.