Etiolated: Weak Imported Play and Vegetables

The Beaverbrooks, 0-5 losers to the Atlantic Puffins, left St. John's with a favorable impression of the local hockey team, as well as the music and pub scene, but the team was less impressed with its weak performance and the days-old etiolated imported vegetables. (Newfoundland can grow stout hockey players, but the province's acidic and stony soil aren't conducive to cultivating first-rate greens.)

Thimblerig: Sleight of St. John's

Seamus J. O'Sheehan and the Lady Beaverbrooks strolled along George Street, where live music streamed from the nearly two dozen pubs. While his younger teammates scanned the St. John's Christmastime festival for pretty maidens, Seamus found himself drawn to the sleight-of-hand artists, for the thimbleriggers seemed like the carnival equivalent of hockey players who juked and jived past would-be defenders.

Deflagrate: The Great Fire of 1892

A month without much rain, a high westerly wind, and weak water main pressure were trigger points in a 1892 fire, when a spark of dubious origin ignited a stable and then proceeded to deflagrate St. John's, Newfoundland.