FLUF
n.— «When Boeing developed the 737 in the late 1960s, some pilots referred to it as Fluf, which stood for Fat Little Ugly Fella. The plane’s wingspan and fuselage length were almost the same, giving the 737 a stubby appearance. It also got the unflattering nickname of Fat Albert, after Bill Cosby’s character.» —“Aerospace Notebook: Latest ‘ugly’ Boeing jet debuts” by James Wallace Post-Intelligencer (Seattle, Washington) Oct. 4, 2006. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Diamond dust, tapioca snow, and sugar icebergs — a 1955 glossary of arctic and subarctic terms describes the environment in ways that sound poetic. And a mom says her son is dating someone who’s non-binary. She supports their relationship, but...
Responding to our discussion about thin places, those spots where the boundary between this world and other realities seems narrow or permeable, a listener in Kirkland, Washington, sent us some eloquent thoughts about her own experiences of that...