well, this post dredged up all sorts of thoughts -- I'll start with some general ones.

there is a large reference work in progress, mentioned here before, called the Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE) -- we could fill up the present size of this board many-many-orders-of-magnitude times with local english. so far there are three huge volumes which cover only through the letter O.
http://polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/dare/dare.html

in regards to the hero (not to be confused with the Greek gyro 8), we seem to be conflicted in the midwest -- it depends on whose cafe you frequent: bomber, grinder, hero, hoagy, Italian sandwich, poor boy, sub, submarine sandwich...

I'll just throw out one word that I believe to be regional since it came up in an email last week. when we see a vehicle with one headlight (or headlamp) burned out we learned to cry out: padiddle! and therefore a vehicle so afflicted is so called.

p.s. - here's another that just came to me. a friend who grew up in Duluth, when he wants me to tighten something down, tells me to "reef it on" -- I'm thinking it is probably a sailor's term and might be familiar to those who live near the sea.