When your server brings food to the table and inquires as to who ordered which dish, that’s informally known in the restaurant biz as auctioning. If your meal is delayed because the person who took your order forgot about it, that’s called a pocket...
Why do we say we are going to nuke some food when we’re simply heating it in the microwave? The earliest recorded instance of nuking food in this way comes from a 1982 article in the University of North Carolina student newspaper. It’s an example of...
When did we start using the word beep? After all, today we have car horns, microwaves and other electronic gizmos that beep, but before the early 1900s, nothing ever beeped. It makes you wonder: How did people back then know their Hot Pocket was...
Bill Watkins from Tallahassee, Florida, is having a tough time knowing which setting to use on his microwave. He figures this moment of indecision while standing there with your finger poised over the buttons deserves a name. His suggestion:...
ambulance-chasing n.— «As a result, theorists haven’t been able to resist interpreting these statistically suspect results. It’s an activity that Neil Turok of Princeton University (himself a theorist) describes as “ambulance chasing—running after...
magic box n.— «After 3 years of exploring the potentials and possibilities of microwave cooking, they have created 350 innovative and flavorful recipes that take full advantage of the “magic box.”» —“Heralding The New Microwave...
