In basketball, a snowbird is a player who hangs back while the rest of her team plays defense. That way, she’s ready to break for the basket when her team gets the ball. The terms snowbird and snowbirding most likely derive from the use of the...
Smoko, Australian slang for a smoke or cigarette break, also turns up at a British research station in Antarctica. It may have arrived with Australians working there, or it may simply have been handed from one wintering team to the next, the way...
Ruth calls from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to share warm memories of her family’s 3 p.m. coffee breaks. Her Swedish grandparents referred to those breaks as kaffedags, literally “coffee time of day.” (Similarly, matdags in Swedish is “meal time.”)...
Dana in Reno, Nevada, wants a word for that moment when you’re playing cards or a board game and you draw what would have been the perfect card or tile for the previous turn you played. She suggests post-perfect pickup. Might there be others...
spacing effect n.— «Wxams after the break are a better measure of true learning, rather than the memorization. Psychologists use the term “spacing effect” to explain why: The review of material increases long-term memory best...
shirt-changing n.— «In other cities, such as Syracuse, law firms have re-incorporated within Empire Zones to take advantage of the breaks, a practice known as shirt-changing.» —“Great address, near Capitol, tax...