scalejacking n.— «Dave Balter coined this great term. It describes the quest of marketers for size at all costs. Because marketers were raised on the scale of mass—TV, radio, newspapers—they have a churn and burn mentality. The internet...
Humorist Roy Blount Jr. sits down with Grant for a conversation about the controversy over writers’ rights, the Amazon Kindle 2, Roy’s recent book, Alphabet Juice, “sonicky” words, and noodling for catfish. He also clears up...
patchwriting n.— «Ms. Blum also embraces various postmodern theories of plagiarism. Internet-savvy, intertextual ingénues don’t steal words; they engage in “patchwriting” and “pastiche,” constructing essays the way...
“He’s sharp as the corner of a round table.” “She’s so sad she’s pulling a face as long as a fiddle.” If startling similes leaving you “grinning like a basket full of possum heads,” you’ll...
traveler n.— «“He is a sexual predator,”” Mehalco said, seeking a maximum sentence. He called Roberto a “traveler,”” a term for men who hook up with underage girls for sex over the Internet.» —“Man gets...
discomgooglation n.— «Now Google has become a symbol of the internet as a whole. A YouGov survey published last week found that Britons suffered from “discomgooglation”—a term used to describe how lost people feel if they...