So you’ve long dreamed of writing fiction, but don’t know where to begin? There are lots of ways to get started — creative writing classes, local writing groups, and books with prompts to get you going. The key is to get started, and...
Mary in Tulsa, Oklahoma, says that growing up, she and the kids in her neighborhood used the the verb pump to refer to giving someone a lift on a bicycle. This caused a bit of confusion when she went away to college and puzzled fellow students with...
tank farm n.— «Molokai has just one distribution facility—Island Petroleum. This ‘tank farm’ as it is called, serves as the only storage facility for the entire island. Three types of gasoline—premium, midgrade and regular, as well as two...
play pump n.— «Two men in South Africa recognized that the average woman in rural Africa has to walk three miles to get clean water. And they created something called “play pumps,” which is a hydraulic system, in which they...
rack inversion n.— «Independent station owners have been paying higher wholesale prices for gasoline than branded dealers—a situation known in industry parlance as a “rack inversion.”» —“Pump pain hits independents” by...
scrap fever n.— «A fence was cannibalized by vandals at Ravine pool, and the pump room at Collins Pool—which the city will not open this year but could have used for parts—was stripped of metal.…Scrap fever, as it is sometimes...