ghost box n.— «I know it sounds crazy, and I know the ghost box is radio based and all sorts of sounds can come through, so it’s only logical to say that people are making words and sentences out of bits and pieces of radio transmission...
Word nerd Ammon Shea quit his job as a furniture mover in New York City to spend an entire year reading the entire Oxford English Dictionary. The result, in addition to eyestrain, headaches, and skeptics’ puzzlement, was Shea’s new book...
heart attack snow n.— «With temperatures within striking distance of freezing during much of this precipitation event, the snow which falls is to be heavy and fairly wet—what’s often referred to as “good packing” or “heart attack” snow...
page 75 n.— «In a typical Hollywood screenplay, there comes a moment just before the third act when the protagonist is faced with certain defeat. It is the part of the film in which the bad guys gain crucial ground after a series of...
bash and build n.— «Financially speaking, there are far worse fates for a homeowner than to be the neighbor of a “bash and build.” Love them or hate them, teardowns generally bolster the resale prices of their neighbors.» —“The Heart...
knol n.— «Earlier this week, we started inviting a selected group of people to try a new, free tool that we are calling “knol,” which stands for a unit of knowledge.…At the heart, a knol is just a web page; we use the...