cat bond n.— «His name was John Seo, he was 39 years old and he ran a hedge fund in Westport, Conn., whose chief purpose was to persuade investors to think about catastrophe in the same peculiar way that he did. He had invested nearly a...
rock doc n.— «Then it will travel through another pipe 100 more miles to land, where it will be further processed and readied for distribution. That is, if the “rock docs” (the geologists) are right and there is a natural-gas...
flea n.— «A flea, in the parlance of medical students, is an internal medicine resident. And, by way of further explanation—here’s where the pejorative nature comes into play—a flea is “the last thing off a dying dog...
snow roller n.— «Stanford found frozen doughnuts of snow on the top of Washington Pass in the North Cascades this week when he was doing avalanche-control work. At first he couldn’t believe his eyes: Perfectly shaped doughnuts had rolled...
frozen chicken head n.— «Hard ski surfaces come in many forms, from “boilerplate” or “bulletproof” after a January thaw/freeze (Vermont natives like to say the snow “toightened up” after the thaw) to...
farmer blow n.— «What andiami of Newport calls a “farmer blow,” my family refers to as a “snot rocket.”» —“From collie to rug to chickadee to nest: It’s nature’s way!” by Sharon Pioneer...