hotel reporting
n.— «They set him to do hotel reporting. He was a failure as a hotel reporter because the young man employed by The Herald and the young man employed by The Times secured interviews every day with interesting visitors whom he was never able to find. He could not find them because these interesting personages did not exist.…The visitor who told the wondrous tales invariably left on the afternoon train for New York, but his name was on the hotel register as a corroborative detail intended to give verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative.» —“George Ade Is Reminiscent About Celebrities” by George Ade New York Times Magazine Jan. 2, 1916. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
The word filibuster has a long and colorful history, going back to the days when pirates roamed the high seas. Today it refers to hijacking a piece of legislation. Plus, the language of yoga teachers: When doing a guided meditation, you may hear...
After our conversation about towns with extremely short names, many listeners wrote to tell us about Why, Arizona. Others pointed out that there are towns called Ely in Iowa, Minnesota, and Nevada. Other super-short appellations include Rye, New...