spizerinctum n.— «It seems that some of the ‘dry’ leaders of the state are in danger of jeopardizing the cause of sobriety by their weak-knee statements. And, of course, they are being ably assisted by certain headline writer desk men who...
turf n.— «“If your mother sends you a letter to the editor saying she loves you, check it out. It might be turf. Today especially, there is an 80 percent probability it is turf.” “Turf” is editorial page slang for form...
toe-touch n.— «You talk a lot about the practice back then of the ‘toe-touch’—someone reporting a story from their home desk and then traveling only briefly to the city where the story is set just to ‘get the dateline.’ You say editors...
top and tail v.— «The big surprise at the moment is the success of Seven’s The World Around Us on Sunday nights hosted by Lisa McCune. It’s really “topped and tailed” in TV parlance. She just reads some scripts in a studio in...
magalog n.— «As editor in chief of Condé Nast’s latest venture, Cargo, a shopping magazine—or, as some cynics prefer, “magalog”—for men, the younger Foxman told the Forward he’s out to empower men.» —“Crazy like a...
watermelon n.— «The keynote speaker, William H. Holms, presented a talk entitled, “Wimps, Weirdos and Watermelons,” in which he stated environmentalists were just a bunch of unemployed welfare-leeching Communists. He suggested...