hella smoke

Photo credit: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

Yesterday's news story about a South Korean airplane crashing upon landing at San Francisco Airport was tragic, and confirmed all my worst fears about flying. It will take the remaining two months I have until Spain to garner enough courage to get on a flight. What's more, my best friend is about to take off from SFO to China and later South Korea, the two locations the flight originated from. 

I just landed at SFO five days ago, returning from a trip to New York. The man seated next to me made fun of me for crossing my fingers on take-off and landing, but you can never be too sure.

The contents of the news story were of course upsetting, but I couldn't help smiling at this one bit of linguistic relief, nestled into a quote from an airline mechanic:  

"It landed straight, then went to the side and then all you saw was hella smoke coming off it," he said. 

You know the story takes place in Northern California when the term "hella" finds its way into formal journalism.  Everyone reading this from Southern California will cringe at both the contents of the news article, and the use of such a widely loathed term.