flagging n.— «The boy with the photo on his cell was now in trouble for having pulled a girl’s pants down in class (another teen phenomenon known as “flagging”).» —“My Students. My Cellphone. My Ordeal.” by Ting-Yi Oei Washington Post Apr. 17, 2009...
Isle of Denial n.— «Frightening as it sounds, the prospect of this sultry, eclectic city rising from the muck of Hurricane Katrina as a sterile imitation of itself is becoming an abiding preoccupation. Even as the city’s riverfront high ground—now...
magic Negro n.— «The enabling mechanism of this conversion is our old friend from “50s liberal movies, the Magic Negro, as descended from Sidney Poitier in “The Defiant Ones.” His job is to prevent the white man from drowning in the bile of his own...
buckraking n.— «All three contracted with the insurance lobby to give speeches to industry groups for large sums of money, a practice known as “buckraking.” Though the Washington Post reported in 2002 that NBC prohibited its employees engaging in...
collector of injustice n.— «Federal agents investigating the April 16 shootings at Virginia Tech think Seung Hui Cho displayed many of the same characteristics of a criminal behavioral profile called the “Collector of Injustice,” or someone who...
elephant cage n.— «On base is a maze of wire and steel rods laid out over an area larger than a football field. Local people call it “the elephant cage.” It houses one of the most important intelligence-gathering operations the U.S. military is...
