The exclamation shiver me timbers! has nothing to do with being cold. A different verb shiver means “to shatter into small pieces,” and timbers refers to the wooden beams that make up the structure of a ship’s hull and ribs. Sailors once used...
stumper n.— «First, what the loggers call a stumper uses its arm to chop down some trees. The first batch of trees, from the start line to the edge of the property line, are laid across the swamp. The stumper’s large, tank-like track tires...
cargo cult economics n.— «With a new year ahead, what do we see as our future? How much of our growth and progress is real, and how much is what I call “Cargo Cult Economics,” where we end up holding sacks of straw? At the end of World War II...
big timber n.— «As recently as 10 years ago, it was possible for a pool player to earn a living hustling, provided he was armed with the requisite chops and disposition.…Odds were good that there was at least one unsuspecting local in the joint...
butt cut n.— «“There really haven’t been, in recent years, blatant cases of timber theft—where a harvester goes in to a 40-acre tract of timber and harvests it and suddenly disappears,” Bell said. One relatively large case involved a logger who...
balloon-frame n.— «These dwellings are called balloon frames because of the light feel and voluminous space created by the vertical studs that run from the ground to the roof line. A balloon-frame house is one in which the exterior timber frame...