IRAB n.— «While the canvassing board did its job on the challenges, the Supreme Court was being asked to rule on another grouping of ballots—what we lovingly call the IRABs, or improperly rejected absentee ballots. This is a pool of...
nester n.— «Contractors often are hired by the chemical industry for specialized work and to keep costs down. Some are so imbedded in the work force they are called “nester” contractors, with long careers in one place, while...
podium job n.— «Gibbs is about to start a job that, like the presidency, seems to age its occupants disproportionately to the years they spend in the job. And it happens live and on C-Span. Known in Washington shorthand as “the podium...
retire/rehire n.— «The practice of allowing state employees to retire, collect a pension or realize some other lump sum benefit and then be rehired for the same job is not working as intended. The practice is called retire/rehire and it’s...
If someone is “poor as Joe’s turkey,” he’s impoverished. A caller raised in the South has heard that expression all his life, but wonders: Who was Joe, and what did his turkey have to do with anything? Things get clearer when...
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...