soda straw effect
n.— «One of the great difficulties of assessing the war is overcoming what some officers call the “soda straw effect,” i.e., having a constricted view during travels but thinking that what you’re seeing somehow represents the entirety of the country.» —“Fallujah catches its breath” by David J. Morris in Fallujah, Iraq Salon Aug. 21, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
A Louisiana listener shares a favorite passage from Laurie Lee’s memoir Cider with Rosie (Bookshop|Amazon), about his boyhood in post-World-War II England. An extract is here and contains the passage:“For the first time in my life I was out of the...
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...