A caller in Hamburg, Germany, wants to know where we got the term laundry list. Grant explains that it derives from a time when people of a certain class sent their laundry out to be cleaned. It’s usually associated with a collection of things that...
slabbing n.— «Dry cleaning used to be a skill. It worked because it allowed you to suspend 30 per cent of water inside a solvent “jacket” using an emulsifier called a “soap.” This technique, called “slabbing down,” has now been banned on health and...
