Well, carry me out with the tongs! Slang-o-rama and an Award nomination

I received a pleasant surprise early this week: The seventh Silver Rush mystery Mortal Music is a finalist for the Left Coast Crime's 2021 Lefty Award for Best Historical Mystery Novel!

I'm pleased, thrilled, honored, and yes, a mite astonished! I'm also tickled pink that I get to rub elbows (virtually only!) with the other Lefty Historical finalists—all wonderful people and writers:

• Susanna Calkins, The Fate of a Flapper (Minotaur Books)
• Dianne Freeman, A Lady’s Guide to Mischief and Murder (Kensington Books)
• Laurie R. King, Riviera Gold (Bantam Books)
• Catriona McPherson, The Turning Tide (Quercus)
• James W. Ziskin, Turn to Stone (Seventh Street Books)

You can view a list of all the Lefty Award finalists for all the categories here. Awards will be presented on April 10.

And yes, this is a combo Slang-o-rama post because Carry me out with the tongs! is...

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... an exclamation of surprise dating from 1927, according to Words and Phrases from the Past. Since it appears in The Facts on File Dictionary of American Regionalisms (Facts on File Library of American Literature) by Robert Hendrickson, I think we can safely assume it is a regional expression. More than that, I cannot say... 

Do salad tongs count?