A.J. Jacobs’ book The Puzzler: One Man’s Quest to Solve the Most Baffling Puzzles Ever, from Crosswords to Jigsaws to the Meaning of Life is a delightful celebration of the history and lure of all kinds of puzzles and puzzlers, from...
A bolt-hole is a place where you can escape to avoid people you don’t want to run into. This term for “a type of refuge” is used mainly in Britain, and refers to a place an animal might flee to if disturbed. This is part of a...
A San Antonio, Texas, listener lives in a house built by his grandfather, who was from Finland. The house has a small window in an upper corner that supposedly was designed to ensure that evil spirits could escape from the house. He thinks...
supe truck n.—Gloss: Short for “supervisor.” «Hall ordered the crews to wait there, and he and Quinones jumped into the “supe truck” — a large, red 4X4 pickup — and went to meet the fire.» —“Captive fire crew...
To be on the lam is to be running from the law, and lam likely comes from an older verb meaning to beat or thrash. Because beat it also came to mean run away or scram, lam appears to have followed the same path into slang for fleeing. Colleen in...
jumping visa n.— «Two Vietnamese detainees escaped from Maribyrnong Detention Centre on Saturday and a third broke his leg trying to jump the fence yesterday. The two scaled the facility’s fence following a volleyball game. “They...