budget dust
n.— «Some of the items certainly appear to be extravagant in light of the fact that the agency has consistently run a deficit. And although the relatively small amount may, in the grand scheme of things, be no more than what we refer to as budget dust, it is both symbolic and reflective of what they bring to the table. They’re not very cost-conscious.» —“Despite budget woes, MTA board dines well” by Lisa Mascaro in L.A. Orange County Register (California) June 5, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
Enthusiastic book recommendations! Martha’s savoring the biography of Alexander von Humboldt, the 19th-century explorer, polymath, and naturalist who revolutionized our understanding of nature and predicted the effects of human activity on...