lay pipe
v. phr.— «In the first draft of every script ever written, especially the bad ones, there’s a character we writers call Sam the Explainer.…He’s the guy-gal-straight-gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgendered guy who stops the show dead in its tracks in order to explain just what exactly the hell is going on. …Among screenwriters, the Argyle-McClane scene is the ne plus ultra of explanation—what we sometimes refer to as “laying pipe.” Here’s a sample of Argyle’s Samitudinosity.» —“Explaining in the Morning” by David Kahane National Review Online Apr. 12, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
In 1971, when a new public library opened in Troy, Michigan, famous authors and artists were invited to write letters to the city’s youngest readers, extolling the many benefits of libraries. One of the loveliest was from E.B. White, author of...
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