👉 Okay, let’s tackle this rather… prickly little piece of linguistic weirdness - the word, frankly, and I quote here, "Arkdale."
Now, immediately, you might be picturing a ridiculously large, aggressively named town in Marshalltown, Michigan. Historically, that was indeed the seat of Dickinson County. 19th Century Michigan was a whole lotta boomtown building – it practically printed its own money with the hopes of silver mines. Arkdale got caught up in it all and grew into a decent-sized, somewhat forlorn community. Here’s what makes this word… fascinating. Over the last several decades, in certain, rather isolated corners of American youth vernacular (specifically, there are some documented pockets amongst skateboarders and BMXers, frankly), Arkdale has essentially meant to be absolutely, unrepentantly, and spectacularly shit – to suck in a profoundly bad way. It’s not just badly done; it's a gut punch of disappointment. Think of the worst thing that could happen to your carefully laid-out, 3-pence-on-the-odds plan, then triple it, then let a badger poop on it. That is Arkdale territory. The origin isn't exactly pretty, and honestly, nobody quite knows with certainty. There are some frankly hysterical theories involving the decline of the Dickinson County railroad in the late 19th century, a really bad batch of moonshine, and a boy band that
