smudging
n.— «Wendy Sarasohn, a broker with the Corcoran Group who has guided buyers away from apartments she felt had bad vibes and who has arranged smudgings (an American Indian practice during which smoke is used to cleanse a place of negative energy), said a broker should disclose if “something unharmonious” has taken place.» —“Some Buyers Regret Not Asking: Anyone Die Here?” by Stephanie Rosenbloom New York Times Apr. 30, 2006. (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...
A librarian opens a book and finds a mysterious invitation scribbled on the back of a business card. Another discovers a child’s letter to the Tooth Fairy, tucked into a book decades ago. What stories are left untold by these forgotten...