cooping n.— «In the end, Officer Bacon, Shield No. 1627, accidentally locked himself in the back seat of a patrol car while napping—known as “cooping”—during an overnight security shift at 1 Police Plaza. The 911 operator he called for...
scareware n.— «Researchers are also warning of new forms of scareware that are coming up on paid search results. Scareware is a term for fake antivirus software sites that appear to come from well-known vendors such as Microsoft...
Fess up: do you have a pet name for your car? How about your computer? Martha and Grant discuss the urge to give nicknames to inanimate objects in our lives. Also, why do we speak of vetting a political candidate? And what in the world is a zoo...
lid n.— «Eighteen minutes later, Samantha Tubman, the Obama staffer charged with corralling and shepherding the press pool, gave it “a lid.” That is, she conveyed the word from Mr. Obama, through his security detail, that he would not be...
paseo millonario n.— «Banco de Costa Rica said in a press release that night-time ATM operations represent only 7 to 8 percent of transactions. For the most part, these three banks have taken the security measure due to the common...
We hear a lot about vetting candidates for political office, but where’d we get the verb to vet? Does vetting have to do with “veterans,” “veterinarians,” or something else entirely? This is part of a complete episode.