rahaeli: And it fascinates me that things like toilets or roofs or walls or floors or sinks or doors are not included in the set of things that can go up! Those are part of the house and not independent enough to go up, even if they're replaceable!

Fun story about this: when our fridge was on its last legs, she said to me "I think the fridge is going up" and I said "what the entire fuck?" "Going up!" she said, and then said "...is that a Baltimorism?" I asked some more questions. It's a Baltimorism.

Her accent is super cute. The way she says ‘Sarah’ is adorable! You’ll be shocked to know that, having lived in Maryland my entire life, I sound like I am from Maryland

But you can't use it for *anything* that's breaking down or starting to die. Other things are *acting* up, not *going* up. I didn't probe it too closely at the time; she checked with her mom and her mom said it's only used for things with motors. Something sounded a little off about that.

Today while we were doing the NYT dialect quiz in one of our Discords she mentioned it again, and said that your TV can go up. That invalidates the explanation her mom came up with! So I started asking some specific questions.

Some probing resulted in: TV: goes up Stove: goes up Table saw: may or may not go up, probably acts up Roof: does not go up Flooring: does not go up Hot water heater: goes up Laptop: does not go up Car: does not go up Smoke alarm: goes up

"Aha," I said, "I've got it. It's house amenities that are swappable in some fashion and are considered critical to the function of the house or the quality/convenience of the time you spend there. I bet your coffee maker can go up." She agreed that yes, the coffee maker can go up.

During the fridge incident, she'd identified that it has some emotive connection to "going [up] to heaven": the further boundary probing indicates that in Baltimore, the home is ensouled and swappable/replaceable parts of the home must be honored on their reaching end of life.

This is amazing. God, language is so fucking weird, and I've never heard this expression but it feels like something my immigrant grandparents would have said.

Isn't it *fascinating*? I was too stressed while the fridge was in the process of going up to probe it efficiently but today I had time!

Spouse grew up in Pittsburgh barely 60 miles but across state lines from where I did and even after twenty years every once in a while they or their family members say something that I have to stop and say "wait what?"

And it fascinates me that things like toilets or roofs or walls or floors or sinks or doors are not included in the set of things that can go up! Those are part of the house and not independent enough to go up, even if they're replaceable!

Yeah. It's a sensible distinction once you see it, but also deeply weird.

I grew up in Columbia, between Baltimore and DC, and I have never heard "going up" used this way.

It is Baltimore, mostly blue-collar, and I mean *Baltimore* Baltimore, not greater Baltimore region!

I did not intend to sound as if I were disputing you, I just meant to add a data point regarding how localized it was.

Yeah, no, I was more marveling at how *incredibly* local it is. Our friend who grew up in I-think-Frederick didn't know it.

My wife grew up in Bethesda and reports not being familiar with this.

so when our ac died earlier this month, would it have gone up? or not? 🤔

Seems like a window unit would be yes, but a central HVAC no.

mmm, fair point.

Hmm, I think window units go up too!

I would have thought it was eliding "go tits up" to be more polite, myself. 😅

Except my laptop recently did JUST THAT and I'm still kinda mad about it.

I would say all of these you just listed come with the house, and generally are expected to last as long as the house does (barring physical damage or reno), whereas the things that 'go up' are expected to be replaced entire as they reach the end of a serviceable life.

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