The haunting new novel Clear (Bookshop|Amazon) by Carys Davies is set amid the Scottish Clearances of the 19th century, a relentless program of forced evictions that drove whole communities of tenant farmers off the land. The story concerns a...
The title of the 1918 novel Cabin Fever, by B.M. Bower, references the term then widely used in the American West to denote the restless feeling of being cooped up too long in a cabin all winter. A synonym for cabin fever is shanty fever. On the...
U-turn transaction n.— «Iranian banks and other institutions could previously send transactions through US banks as long as they were initiated by a non-Iranian or American bank outside the US and ended in a non- Iranian or American bank outside...
poop butt n.— «The most severe threat to any adolescent drug user is the “snitch,” or the “loud mouth poop butt.” Anyone perceived as a potential informer will be isolated from the mainstream of adolescent drug use.» —“Recruitment Into Drug Use” by...
rubber room n. a space where a worker subject to a disciplinary hearing or other administrative action waits and does no work; generally, a place or personal mind-set of isolation. Etymological Note: After rubber room, a literal reference to a...