city-it n.— «Some local surfers complained last week that publicity for the new surfing beach would attract a large influx of city-its (rhymes with idiots), a local term for neophyte surfers from Manhattan.» —“Sand, Surf, and...
mouse type n.—Gloss: Defined in the Dictionary for Library and Information Science as “very tiny, barely readable type used for…information the seller is required to display but wishes to downplay.” «Charter is taking...
Death of the Typewriter Ding! In this week’s episode, Mark Twain would be pleased. Reports that it’s the end of the line for the typewriter have been greatly exaggerated. Well, slightly anyway: it’s not the horseless carriage...
A longboarder reports she and her fellow surfers refer to young surfers as groms or grommets—not to be confused, of course, with hodads and kooks. But where’d that surfing lingo come from? This is part of a complete episode.
gravelling n.— «Soweto youths aren’t alone in their crazy train-surfing habits.…Typically spurred on by whistles and admiring female looks, young train surfers will variously run against the walls of bridge underpasses (“The...
spara-spara n.— «Soweto youths aren’t alone in their crazy train-surfing habits.…Typically spurred on by whistles and admiring female looks, young train surfers will…run noisily along platforms (“spara-spara”)...