A recent article in The New Yorker magazine about the late writer David Foster Wallace has Martha musing about Wallace’s stem-winding sentences, and the word stem-winder.
air breather n.— «Hundreds of American support personnel members on the ground in Colombia complemented these elite forces, in addition to a frenzied intelligence-gathering operation located in the United States Embassy here, drawing on...
weeping tile n.— «Key components to this portion of the project, besides the 6 x 6 lumber, are a perforated four-inch drain pipe (also referred to as weeping tile), course gravel, 10-inch galvanized spikes, a 1/4 inch ship auger and a...
Net walker n.— «More broadly, the Internet is changing prostitution. In recent years, thousands of prostitutes have posted their own Web sites, including their pictures and contact information. They are called Net walkers. The Internet...
brainbump n.— «Other exam answer keys are available for everything from school bus driver to medical technician, and for a range of military skills. The sites are called “brainbumps” in Internet jargon.» —“Web sites offer...
A Wisconsinite hopes to unlock the question, “Why do we call it a skeleton key?” This is part of a complete episode.