Pugetopolis n.— «Pugetopolis is a term boosters use to express the ambitions of creating a massive city that will extend from Olympia to Bellingham, and cynics and critics—and what I like to think of as reasonable people—think of...
rebluing n.— «The police force has since undergone reform in a process called “Re-Bluing”—a term derived from the process of refurbishing a gun barrel and also from the color of the force’s new digitalized-patterned blue...
toothpick rule n.— «Even so, awareness of the new law is so high that Parven Pomper Vice President Alixandria Lapp, for one, made sure to run its reception menu by a lawyer before taking it to the caterers. Under what is known as the...
bottom fisher n.— «Some of the new capital comes from what are called “bottom fishers”—investors who are willing to buy some of the dicey IOUs from banks at a healthy discount.» —“Is It Over?” by Irwin M...
“Go fly a kite!” A caller from Washington, D.C. wonders whose kite is getting flown and why. Naturally, we have some ideas! Here’s a copy of the cartoon Grant mentions (from the Chicago Tribune May 15, 1927, p. G2). This is part of...
diplomatic surge n.— «President George W. Bush this week celebrated security gains from the US troop “surge” in Iraq—but made clear that US hopes rest heavily on what some aides call “the diplomatic surge...