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
How do you transform ancient Chinese script for use in the modern age? English uses a keyboard with just 26 letters, but the first Chinese typewriter looked like a small table under a huge disk with more than 4,000 characters. A new book chronicles...
In 1916, a small-town newspaper in Pennsylvania printed a fanciful item about a local gathering with a guest list that included, among others, Miss Ella Vader, Mr. Ray Zor, and other punny names. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...