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Just wanted to ask if pepper-upper is common slang expression.
I know the author so I´ll ask him by e-mail.
thx again
In the late 1800s, up until about the 1960s, there was a drug (medicine) called "Carters Little Liver Pills". It was used to treat headaches and general pains, like aspirin. Because it was so heavily advertised and well known, it was assumed that they had a lot of them.
So that phrase was meant as a way of comparing the number of items with Carters Liver Pills, meaning there were a lot of what they compare it with. It is a more creative way of saying that there were a lot of barns and outhouses in Iowa.
..the verb is 'to pep up' - ..there is no noun so we make one up, ie 'pepper-upper', ie something that peps you up... its not a word I've ever used