bullet sponge
n.— «Others in the Army call them grunts, or trigger pullers, or crunchies, for the sound of a tank rolling over a dead soldier. Sgt. Allan Toney has heard them all. “Bullet taker, bullet sponge, bullet stopper,” he recites while smoking a cigarette outside the concrete barriers protecting his battalion’s tent city. “Joe.”» —“Infantrymen thrive in the thick of things” by Wes Allison in Camp Pennsylvania, Kuwait St. Petersburg Times (Florida) Mar. 23, 2003. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
In 1971, when a new public library opened in Troy, Michigan, famous authors and artists were invited to write letters to the city’s youngest readers, extolling the many benefits of libraries. One of the loveliest was from E.B. White, author of...
There was a time when William Shakespeare was just another little seven-year-old in school. Classes in his day were demanding — and all in Latin. A new book argues that this rigorous curriculum actually nurtured the creativity that later flourished...