Lake Wobegon effect
n.— «There was a strong Lake Wobegon effect in the data, with only 1 percent of the population admitting to having “less than average” looks.» —“Online Dating? Thin and Rich Works Here, Too” by Hal R. Varian New York Times June 30, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Sigrin writes from Albany, New York, that she misheard our earlier conversation about the expression shaving yak hair meaning “performing a monotonous, tedious task.” At first she thought we said shaving gnat hair, which she figures is...
What if, instead of being an inanimate object, a dictionary were alive? That’s the idea behind a lavishly illustrated new children’s book called The Dictionary Story (Bookshop|Amazon) by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston. This is part of a...