Hi from Martha and Grant! In our latest episode, you'll learn the meaning of the mysterious phrase "hit the pickle button" and about the odd names that law enforcement officers give to criminals at large, like the "Botox...
zap n.— «Following the 1969 Stonewall riots, as the nascent gay rights movement became increasingly combative, a gay Philadelphia teenager initiated his own guerrilla war aimed at television, including the CBS Evening News. Mark Segal...
block booking n.— «As Ladd explained in Blockbuster, Star Wars got into the theaters because of a now illegal practice called “block booking,” which involved studios essentially holding a big movie hostage in exchange for...
goldfishing n.— «The day I am in the studio, the report on the opposition’s activities features just one politician talking in an interview. But you don’t hear his words. He is, in TV parlance, goldfishing: you can see his lips move but...
surf-pod n.— «Chintzy hotels are being turned into trendy apart-hotels—flats with hotel services—while tired guest houses are being converted into studio flats, or surf-pods, as the developers call them.» —“Building bonanza for...
rat hole n.— «The intervening space between tire and wheel well is sometimes called the dead cat hole, according to Peter Davis, director of interior design for global compact utility vehicles at G.M. More colorful and less formal terms...