Jim Wilson
n.— «About 50,000 bodies were air-shipped last year.…American, meanwhile, has developed a code name for its program: Jim Wilson. Funeral directors calling the airline in the presence of the deceased’s family can simply ask for the name. “It makes things easier for them,” says the spokesman.» —“Tracking Travel” by Jonathan Dahl Wall Street Journal Mar. 22, 1988. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
A listener adds to our collection of slang used by RV enthusiasts. When she’s not in her sticks and bricks–that is, her brick-and-mortar home in Michigan–she’s driving around in her motor home chasing 70, which in the RV community means “trying to...
Welcome to another A Way with Words newsletter! With any luck, our A Way with Words email messages don’t end up in your spam folder. But did you ever wonder why junk mail is called spam in the first place? There’s a funny story behind this term, and...