clacker n.— «You may even be a clacker if you are a man, though in that case your clacking is more likely to take place in private, or at least in your own time rather than the company’s. I discovered I was one while watching the new film...
gina-jack n.— «My OB/GYN visit is fast approaching and I am not looking forward to it one bit.…She always attempts conversation right as she brings out what I call the “‘gina-Jack,” the vaginal equivalent of a car jack. It sounds...
black-ccent n.— «With his light skin, African father and white mother, and only faint hint of what I call a “black-ccent”—the subtle vocal quality that makes most black Americans identifiable as black over the phone (yes, one...
coup de glotte n.— «Actually, Mr. Johnson explained, the trick at the heart of ventriloquism isn’t “throwing” the voice but “treating” it. Thanks to a throat-muscle manipulation that opera singers call a coup de glotte, the amplitude of...
Tennessee music box n.— «Dulcimers come in all shapes and sizes—peanut-shaped models, triangles, graceful ovals and rectangular contraptions often called “Tennessee music boxes.” They usually have three or four strings and sound like a...
electric scarecrow n.— «Residents in the area near the Country Ribbon plant complained to city hall about the loud sound system that the plant was using to keep crows and seagulls away from its caged chickens. The plant, in the...