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
National Book Award winner Barry Lopez had wise advice for young writers. First, read widely and follow your curiosity. Second, travel or learn a foreign language. And third, find out what you truly believe, because if you’re not writing from...
Many of us struggled with the Old English poem “Beowulf” in high school. But what if you could actually hear “Beowulf” in the English of today? There’s a new translation by Maria Dahvana Headley that uses contemporary...