desert cooler n.— Note: Wikipedia has a decent entry for this type of air conditioner. Collins is the only mainstream dictionary publisher to include the term, but does so with an outdated definition: “a cooling device in which air is...
Martha reviews the new book, Dreaming in Hindi by Katherine Russell Rich, a memoir about setting out to learn a second language in mid-life. Rich spent a year in India to learn Hindi, and became so fascinated with the process that she went on to...
Humorist Roy Blount Jr. sits down with Grant for a conversation about the controversy over writers’ rights, the Amazon Kindle 2, Roy’s recent book, Alphabet Juice, “sonicky” words, and noodling for catfish. He also clears up...
whafa n.—Gloss: A contraction of “what the fuck?” «Because Probst is a publisher and has an Amazon Advantage account, he sent Amazon a letter saying “whafa.”» —“Amazon is a Gay-Hating Company for...
earn out v. phr.— «Consider the advance system, whereby a publisher pays an author a nonreturnable up-front fee for a book. If the book doesn’t “earn out,” in the industry parlance, the publisher simply eats the cost...
floppy n.— «Floppies, pamphlets, monthlies are terms for the monthly comics that are by publishers. It is usually used to separate them from trade books/graphic novels. Sometimes the term is used as a snobby way to put down comics that...