rat-trap bond
n.— «The southern and western walls of the building, which face the sun during the day, have been built using a type of masonry called the rat-trap bond. Popularised by the iconic architect Laurie Baker who died last week, this is a special arrangement of bricks that leaves air gaps between walls. The two-layered construction prevents transmission of heat from the outer to the inner wall. It also saves on the use of bricks.» —“The coolest building in town” by Raghava M. in Karnataka The Hindu (India) Apr. 11, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
The casual phrase good enough for who it’s for suggests that something wasn’t done perfectly, but was done well enough. This saying is not all that common, but it’s been around for at least a century. Similar expressions used in the construction...