spit take
n.— «The seventh annual weekend festival, which opens tomorrow night and comprises more than 50 events, will include an encore interview of Jon Stewart by New Yorker Editor David Remnick to benefit the U.S.O. When he signed up for last year’s chat with Stewart, Remnick says, “I didn’t know people still did a spit take. But I asked him some idiotic questions, and I ended up with water all over my shirt.”» —“New Yorker Fest: Wit, Lit And Spit” by Kyle Smith New York Post Oct. 5, 2006. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Asthenosphere, a geologist’s term for the molten layer beneath the earth’s crust, sparks a journey that stretches all the way from ancient Greece to the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Plus: What the heck is a dogberg? It’s when...
Amid court-ordered busing in the 1970s, a middle-school teacher tried to distract her nervous students on the first day of class with this strange assignment: find a monarch caterpillar. The result? A memorable lesson in the miracle of metamorphosis...