smudging n.— «Wendy Sarasohn, a broker with the Corcoran Group who has guided buyers away from apartments she felt had bad vibes and who has arranged smudgings (an American Indian practice during which smoke is used to cleanse a place of...
coffin corner n.— «While Americans are now accustomed to institutionalized death, people in previous periods commonly died at home. Some Victorian-era town houses in New York even have their original “coffin corners,” the...
salvage v.— «During martial law, “salvage” came into use in the Philippines to mean “to execute or dispose of a person summarily and secretly.” Filipino journalists use it that way without regret. I wonder if it...