Todd Purdum’s recent Vanity Fair article on the presidency contains intriguing beltway slang, including gaggle and full lid. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Beltway Slang”
A fantastic article has been making the rounds.
This is from Vanity Fair.
It’s kind of a day in the life of the president.
It’s just talking about the realities of being president and all the compromises and work that you have to do.
Of the country?
Of the country, of course.
Not a job I’ve held yet, so it was kind of nice to see them talk about it.
There’s a ton of great language in there.
One of the words that they talked about is a stakeout.
A stakeout is, I guess this is when a meeting breaks up and the reporters are kind of all just hanging out there waiting to buttonhole the officials.
That’s a stakeout.
Interesting, right?
Another one that’s in the article is the morning gaggle.
This is the morning press briefing of all the reporters just to find out what happened overnight.
Great stuff.
And then another one is, it’s a full lid.
A full lid.
Wait a minute.
When the White House has no more public statements, announcements, nominations, or activities.
I’m quoting from the Vanity Fair article here.
Anyway, just a ton of interesting stuff in there.
Besides telling you a little bit more about how this country operates, we’ll link to that on the website.
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