When a Hickey is a Snafu Rather Than a Blemish

Jase in Austin, Texas, knows that hickey means a “love bite” or “mark left on the skin,” and doo-hickey refers to a small object that the speaker can’t recall the name of, but why would anyone refer to a hickey in the power grid during a power outage across his state. It turns out that hickey used in that last sense is particular to journalist Ross Ramsey of the Texas Tribune. In printer’s slang, a hickey is a blemish of some sort. This is part of a complete episode.

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