Saturday night massacre
n.— «When Gonzales’s Department of Justice fired eight US Attorneys, the process was done as usual in secrecy. Supposedly, the eight were going to leave quietly and not rock the boat. After all they were political appointees of the Bush administration and were serving at the president’s pleasure. They could be fired at will, quite legally. However, the process was not only secret, it was also very clumsy, utterly botched. First, instead of firing them one at a time they chose the method known in Washington as a Saturday night massacre.» —“Blips #49 From The Martian Desk” by Gilles d’Aymery Swans Mar. 26, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Have you ever googled your own name and found someone else who goes by the very same moniker? There’s a word for that: googleganger. Plus, the language of hobbyists and enthusiasts: If you’re a beekeeper, perhaps you call yourself a...
Ribbon fall. Gallery forest. You won’t find terms like these in most dictionaries, but they and hundreds like them are discussed by famous writers in the book Home Ground: A Guide to the American Landscape. The book is an intriguing collection...