earn out v. phr.— «Consider the advance system, whereby a publisher pays an author a nonreturnable up-front fee for a book. If the book doesn’t “earn out,” in the industry parlance, the publisher simply eats the cost...
face of freedom n.— «Freed from the (slightly tarnished) steel and glass of the financial districts of our cities, beards are on the rise. Gone are the 6am starts, the 7am transatlantic conference calls, the boozy business lunches and the...
A Michigander wants to know about the difference between titled and entitled. She’d assumed that a book is titled Gone with The Wind and a person is entitled to compensation for something. Grant and Martha explain it’s a little more...
rolling music n.— «He was summoned to a meeting with police and TABC officials and told to beef up security, enforce a dress code restricting baggy clothes, jerseys, or gang-related attire, and to shun “rolling” music, a mixture of...
freeze dance n.— «No longer can kids be bored at a party. These days there has to be some sort of allotment for kids, even if it’s hiring a teenager to do freeze dance.» —“Party Gone Bad: Blame the Parents” by Joyce...
tin bender n.— «Mills was transferred in March 1943 to Norman, Okla., where she began training in sheet metal and welding. Her rate of pay was $96 a month. The Navy was training her to be an aviation metal smith, or “tin...