Mother’s Day factor n.— «The trick is to load up the switch as much as possible, short of “blocking” or what telephone engineers refer to as “the Mother’s Day Factor.” Translation: Telephone traffic is typically highest on that day. Thus, telephone...
blue bird sale n.— «The flip side of this is the “blue bird” sale, where the product is offered at, say, 100 with full expectation that it will sell for 90, but the customer either pays list or selects several high-priced options.» —by Lawrence E...
white gold n.— «Traditionally white is the colour of mourning. When a person dies, friends, relatives and members of the community collect money in a white envelope (called white gold) for the family and the bereaved, which goes towards the cost of...
spit take n.— «Spit Take: Reaction to surprise news while drinking a glass of water was so perfected by one man that it will forever be known as the Danny Thomas Spit Take. At the dinner table, Danny’s reaction to any news he didn’t want to hear...
spalon n.— «The Day Spa Association has set guidelines designed to educate consumers about what they should expect from a day spa. “These guidelines clearly explain the difference between a true day spa and ‘spalons’, a term used to describe a...
crowdsourcing n.— «Mechanical Turk’s customers are corporations. By contrast, ChaCha.com, a start-up in Carmel, Ind., uses artificial artificial intelligence—sometimes also called crowdsourcing—to help individual computer users find better results...
