James from Trabuco Canyon, California, learns that there’s a proper way to spell the letters of the alphabet. The letter J is spelled jay and H is spelled aitch. His own name would be spelled out as jay aye em ee ess. The letter Y is spelled wye...
jobber n.—Gloss: A wholesaler. «Within the next few years, the trio hopes to sign up 90 oil distributors (also known as jobbers) to form a group of as many as 2,000 C-stores east of the Mississippi selling private-branded Liberty gasoline...
podium job n.— «Gibbs is about to start a job that, like the presidency, seems to age its occupants disproportionately to the years they spend in the job. And it happens live and on C-Span. Known in Washington shorthand as “the podium job,” it has...
show me run n.— «“We have what is called a show me run, where our lead plane pilot (in a smaller plane) shows us where he wants us to drop,” Colonel Barkdull said. “He describes the start point and where he wants the line to run, and advises us on...
raisin bomber n.— «On June 26, 1948, in response to the Soviet blockade, C-47s began landing millions of tons of food, coal and other supplies in an operation centered at Tempelhof. At its peak, the airlift landed planes every 90 seconds in West...
scratch and dent mortgage n.— «Founded in 1996, New York-based C-Bass specializes in investing in distressed home mortgage loans. Also known as “scratch and dent” mortgages, these are loans that were either not documented properly or on which...

