Moonbats and wingnuts and sleepovers, oh my! Martha and Grant discuss political slang making the rounds during this election year. Also: Is it duct tape or duck tape? And what are you supposed to put in a jockey box?
The British publishers of the Collins dictionary have announced 24 words on their endangered species list. They’re words like “vilipend,” which means “to treat with contempt,” and “nitid,” that’s n-i-t...
Minnewisowa n.— Note: Similar to FLOHPA from the 2004 election. «The visits, the 11th and 12th to Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa in just over a month by Obama, John McCain and their running mates, were the latest evidence of just how...
Great Scott! You’ve heard the expression. But who was Scott and why was he so great? Or was he an impressive Scotsman? Martha and Grant can’t say for sure, although the evidence points toward a Civil War soldier who happened to go by...
hot tubbing n.— «He might have preferred a new way of hearing expert testimony that Australian lawyers call hot tubbing. In that procedure, also called concurrent evidence, experts are still chosen by the parties, but they testify...
short-and-distort n.— «Investigators have requested emails and text messages from fund managers, looking, Hagstrom said, for evidence of irresponsible rumour-mongering—a practice known as short-and-distort, in which short sellers borrow...