A caller who grew up in New Jersey remembers hearing a neighbor use the expression Hak mir nisht ken tshaynik whenever she wanted to shush someone. He’s sure the phrase is Yiddish, but he’s never been able to figure out the literal...
head table n.— «A survey of the workers confirmed what the plant’s nurses had suspected: those who got sick were employed at or near the “head table,” where workers cut the meat off severed hog heads.» —“A Medical Mystery Unfolds in...
index case n.— «A man whom doctors call the “index case”—the first patient they knew about—got sick in December 2006 and was hospitalized at the Mayo Clinic for about two weeks.» —“A Medical Mystery Unfolds in...
death-care industry n.— «In recent years, laws requiring funeral homes and cemeteries to disclose costs and provide price lists have removed much of the mystery from what some in the business refer to as the “death-care industry...
neutralino n.— «Neutralinos are (or, at least, are predicted to be) the lightest and most stable of these new particles. And their stability means they may also solve a cosmological mystery, which is that a quarter of the universe seems...
chicken a-la-death n.— «While perennial favorites like spaghetti and beef stew please most palates, old classics have fallen out of favor—like Chicken a-la-King, affectionately called by some Chicken a-la-Death.» —“Grub, chow...