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 term...
Smoko is slang for “a cigarette break.” It’s used in Australia and also at a British research station in Antarctica. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “A Smoko, Drongo?” Here’s another bit of slang used by those researchers in...
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.”)...
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 when there is more...
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 advantages” by Rick Karlin Times...
on-boarding n.— «No matter if you’re the next Carly Fiorina, Michael Eisner or Maurice Greenberg, or someone assuming a middle-management position, “getting up to speed”—something referred to as “onboarding”—is a challenging, never-fast-enough rite...
