Peggy Lee moment
v. phr.— «Now we have the “Peggy Lee Moment.” I heard a reference to this last week on one of those television stations that feature a bunch of guys screaming at each other, and liked it so much I decided to steal it. Two of the biggest bond insurers lost their AAA ratings last week, and the reaction was so muted, I thought of the 1960s chanteuse’s song, “Is That All There Is?”» —“Ambac, MBIA Finally Have Their ’Peggy Lee Moment'” by Joe Mysak Bloomberg.com June 10, 2008. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
A Kentucky listener says her father often prefaced statements with the phrase I tell you what’s the truth. This regionalism appears in the Dictionary of Southern Appalachian English (Bookshop|Amazon). A shorter version is I’ll tell you...
In the 15th century, the word respair meant “to have hope again.” Although this word fell out of use, it’s among dozens collected in a new book of soothing vocabulary for troubled times. Plus, baseball slang: If a batter...