Hello Sailor! Interj. Occasional West Coast Equivalent Of Hello World

HomeFortune CookiesJargon File

hello sailor! interj.

Occasional West Coast equivalent
of hello world; seems to have originated at SAIL, later
associated with the game Zork (which also included "hello,
aviator" and "hello, implementor"). Originally from the
traditional hooker's greeting to a swabbie fresh off the boat, of
course. The standard response is "Nothing happens here."; of all
the Zork/Dungeon games, only in Infocom's Zork 3 is "Hello, Sailor"
actually useful (excluding the unique situation where _knowing_
this fact is important in Dungeon...).

Related: