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Iron Coffin was a rueful term coined by German submarine ("U-boot" or "U-boat") crews to describe their vessels during World War II. This term reflected the submariners' awareness that submarines are usually sunk while they are submerged, so that the crew of a sunken submarine is interred forever in the hull at the bottom of the sea.
The term is descriptive and makes the desired point, although during the war submarines were made of steel, not iron.
The truth of the term is evident in the fact that between 28,000 and 39,000 U-boat men died in the War, representing a casualty rate between 75% and 90%. The lesser number is most often quoted. The wide difference in estimates may result from the fact that many U-boat men died in air attacks while ashore, or were killed after being re-assigned to Army units during the last months of the conflict.
In the early 1970s the term gained some familiarity among English speakers after the publication of a memoir of the same name written by Herbert Werner, a former U-boat commander.
When a submarine sinks, it becomes an iron coffin.
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A Rule Nazi is someone who insists on his or her own strict interpretation of the rules of a game, even if the other players collectively disagree. Usually, a Rule Nazi will become petulant if the other players do not yield to his or her viewpoint.
The term "Rule Nazi" originated among people who play table-top historical wargames. Historical wargames (one word) consist of board games and miniatures games. Miniatures games are played with toy soldiers and models of military vehicles, ships and aircraft. Historical wargames are part of a relatively small but still substantial subset of traditional game players. One of the most widely subscribed wargames is Warhammer Ancients a version of the popular fantasy game Warhammer.
Dave is a Rule Nazi. He always has to have his own way when we disagree about the rules.
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A twinkiesmoot is a unit of measure which describes the rate of production of Twinkies, the famous snack cake. As of 2009, the rate of production of Twinkies is 60,000 per hour; thus, 1 twinkiesmoot is 60,000 per hour.
The Twinkiesmoot is named in honor of Oliver R. Smoot. While a student at M.I.T. in 1958, Smoot lay down on the Massachusetts Avenue bridge between Cambridge and Boston, Massachusetts. His length was measured and that length became known in M.I.T. lore as 1 smoot. The term has become widely known and Google Earth offers it as an optional unit of measure. Note that since the twinkiesmoot is a measure of the rate of production, and the smoot is a measure of distance, the two are related in name only.
A related term is "nanotwinkiesmoot." A nanotwinkiesmoot describes the rate of consumption of twinkies by an individual person. 1 nanotwinkiesmoot equals 1 billionth of a smoot, or 0.00006 twinkiesmoots.
The two terms have entered general usage in the Boston, Massachusetts area. It is generally believed to have been coined by a student of the M.I.T. business school.
Alice ate 12 Twinkies in half an hour yesterday. Since 1 twinkiesmoot is 60,000 per hour, she ate them at a speed of 144 nanotwinkiesmoots!