vomit comet

n. any form of transportation on which riders are (jocularly) said to become nauseated or seasick, such as an airplane that simulates zero-gravity conditions or a bus that transports late-night revelers. Subjects: English, Automobiles & Transportation, Slang

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Citations: 1953 Algona Advance (Iowa) (June 2) “The Old Goat” p. 4: Discontinuance of the interurban service between Iowa City and Cedar Rapids comes as a bit of a shock to those alumni of Iowa who used to ride it. Various crops of students had different names for the “Crandic,” and the last car to Iowa City at night was known far and wide as the “Vomit Comet” in the good old days of prohibition. Seems some professors (never, never, never any students) used to go to Cedar Rapids and lap up some joy juice and catch the last train out. The swinging and swaying, jerking and jolting, with the track laid out by a drunk snake with the DTs, led to the inevitable result of a revolt by the stomach. The doors would never open—so…"Crandic” comes from the initials on the cars CRandIC railway. 1957 Sheboygan Press (Wisconsin) (Aug. 15) “Latest Book by Julilly H. Kohler Released Today”: He sat on an upturned orange crate all the way from Wisconsin because his bus, the Vomit Comet, has one less seat than boys. 1971 Victor Perera New York Times (Jan. 24) “All Aboard for the ‘Cattle Car’ ”: A San Juan travel agent indelicately calls it the “vomit comet”—an allusion, I imagine, to the great number of babes in arms or inexperienced travelers aboard the planes. It was therefore with some misgiving that I booked a seat on the midnight economy flight from New York to San Juan. 1985 Paul Recer (Associated Press) (May 22) “Six World-Class Gymnasts Undergo Weightlessness Experiments”: It was the second flight on the aircraft for the athletes. On Tuesday, they were flown while strapped in their seats and blindfolded. During that flight the jet lived up to its nickname—the “vomit comet.” All of the athletes, but Johnson became ill. 1989 Roger E. Bilstein @ National Aeronautics and Space Administration Orders of Magnitude: Officially, NASA’s C-135 was designated the Reduced Gravity Aircraft; unofficially, hapless trainees dubbed it the “vomit comet,” “barf buzzard,” and “weightless wonder.” 1997 Eye Weekly (Toronto, Canada) (July 10) “Escape from the Vomit Comet”: Escape from the Vomit Comet…A couple of us caught the late-night bus to the movies.…A while later, someone rang the bell and a group of us waited to get off. The bus stop neared and the driver didn’t bother to slow down. On the contrary, the nut took it into his head to hit the gas pedal! 2001 Steve Rubenstein San Francisco Chronicle (California) (Feb. 8) “Disney’s Virtual California Theme park makes actual travel superfluous” p. A1: Chris had just ridden the new roller coaster four times in a row, but he insisted he was still seeing things straight. The coaster is part of perhaps the park’s weirdest section of all, called Paradise Pier. It’s a tribute to the old-fashioned seaside amusement parks with their “Hey-sailor-win-a-kewpie- doll” carnival games and vomit-comet rides that Walt Disney himself detested. 2004 Denis Solomon Trinidad & Tobago Express (Port of Spain) (Dec. 27) “The fleet’s in”: The Condor fast ferry was unsuitable for our waters, so that apart from its manifold mechanical problems the wildness of its movements quickly earned it the nickname of the “Vomit Comet.” 2006 Washington Post (Sept. 18) “Guards to Be Placed ‘Vomit Comet’ Buses” (in Aspen, Colorado): Aspen partygoers, beware. Transportation officials have voted to hire a security firm to patrol the bus station and late-night buses on Fridays and Saturdays that commonly have to take drunken passengers home from Aspen. The bus service on those nights has been inauspiciously dubbed the “Vomit Comet."…"I’ve been on the Vomit Comet before, and most of them aren’t true criminals.…They’re just drunk.” 2006 CHUM-TV CityNews (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) (Sept. 21) “24-Hour TTC Service Proposed”: Toronto Transit Commission officials are pondering extending subway service to 24 hours a day according to a published report.…"I think it’s a really great idea because I know that when I go out late at night taking the “vomit comet” as we so affectionately call it. It’s not the best way to get home.”

Posted 29 Sep 06 | Permalink | Tell a Friend

Reader comments:

When I entered into the construction industry in 1974 a vomet comet was widely used to refer to the lunch wagon truck appearing before work, break and at lunch.

by Timothy Ray 02 Oct 06, 0320 GMT

I did find one other use of the term used in that way, but the incidence didn’t seem common enough to warrant inclusion.

by Grant Barrett 02 Oct 06, 0326 GMT