graveyard spiral
n.— «Smokey, a goofball, silly but friendly car-chase comedy, became a runaway hit and locked Reynolds into a series of road-race films that put his film career into a graveyard spiral.» —“Affable Reynolds stays afloat in a sea of miserable movies” by Patrick Taggart Austin American-Statesman (Texas) Feb. 12, 1989. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Aubrey in Waco, Texas, says her mother used to warn the kids against contracting honkus of the bonkus, a fanciful name for a contagious disease. This colloquial term probably comes from the words bonk and konk, meaning “to hit” or...
Astronauts returning from space say they experience what’s called the overview effect, a new understanding of the fragility of our planet and our need to reflect on what humans all share as a species. A book about the end of the universe...