Welcome to the A Way with Words newsletter, where "language" is our middle name. "Dangerous" was taken. This weekend we told you what a "trailer queen" and a "soup spitter" are, and we took a punny quiz about...
frequent-flyer program n.— Note: Related to frequent flier and diesel therapy. «Frakt obtained Guantanamo records showing Jawad was moved 112 times from cell to cell during a two-week period in May 2004 in what was known as the...
pass-through contract n.— «Because the federal government does not deal directly with private detention businesses, Nueces County is in the process of negotiating a new federal prisoner housing rate for its own jail as well as a rate for...
swoss n.— «The Civil Air Patrol was neither fish nor fowl, or as the local commander, George E. Haddaway termed it neither swans or gooses, swosses. While they did not officially belong to the armed services, its members were designated...
cutter court n.— «After lunch, the staff are told the court computer system has gone down, meaning serious delays. The custody court—or “cutter court,” as it’s known by prisoners and staff—is likely to go on until 9pm at least...
shit up n.— «Assaults, when they happened, were generally of a relatively minor nature in comparison: grabbed arms perhaps, a shoulder-barge, the occasional slap, kick—or a favourite with the subversive prisoner, a “shit up,”...