curtain raiser
n.— «The petition was given to the media in plenty of time for reporters to write what we in the business like to call “curtain raisers,” in advance of a big news conference that was held on Tuesday. Let it never be said that environmentalists don’t know how to generate good publicity.» —“This Climate Is Surely Full of Hot Air” by Joe Nocera New York Times Sept. 22, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
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...
When there’s no evening meal planned at home, what do you call that scramble to cobble together your own dinner? Some people apply acronyms like YOYO — “you’re on your own” — or CORN, for “Clean Out your Refrigerator...