blowoff
n.— «The Elliot Forbes speech was what is known in the carnival world as a “blowoff,” long used in 10-in-one freak shows to hustle additional money from people who had already paid an admission price. In any good blowoff, there’s the constant implication that the “good stuff” is in the attraction you haven’t paid for yet—in this case, the book.» —“Kroger Babb’s Roadshow” by Joe Bob Briggs Reason (Los Angeles, California) Nov., 2003. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
What if, instead of being an inanimate object, a dictionary were alive? That’s the idea behind a lavishly illustrated new children’s book called The Dictionary Story (Bookshop|Amazon) by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston. This is part of a...
Astronauts returning from space say they experience what’s called the overview effect, a new understanding of the fragility of our planet and our need to reflect on what humans all share as a species. A book about the end of the universe...