foreground v.— «I have tried to close the gap between us. I walk in, I’m female, I’m an egghead, I’m older, I have a Ph.D.—for some reason, they foreground that. My response is “La-di-fucking-da, I have a Ph.D. Whatever...
san man n.— «You can go your whole life without ever having to call a fireman, and if you’re lucky you’ll never have to call a cop, but you want to see a sanitation worker every day. If every san man in the world packs up his...
froogle n.— «Cousins is part of the new “froogle” movement, which began in America “Froogles” are environmentally-motivated types who use the internet to help them cut their consumerism back to basics. The trend...
beauty n.— «I had fallen victim to what is called, by its detractors, “food porn.” Its creators usually refer to it as “making beauties”—as in “Hey, Al, let’s do a beauty of those pecans.” Bob Tuschman, the Food Network’s head...
disco car n.— «Like the mythological “disco cars” of the 70’s, the last cars of certain trains that were supposedly reserved for using and selling drugs, the F is reserved for those who read books reviewed in The New Yorker.» —“Call...
elective cinema n.— «Ross’s friend Walter Salles, who directed “The Motorcycle Diaries,” and who first suggested the Brazil trip to him, coined the term “elective cinema”: in the cyclorama you’d have to choose which section of the screen...