whisky plank
n.— «There is, fortunately, a ritual that differs from this wasteful ceremony that is known as the placing of the whisky plank. When the last plank is in place on the hull of a ship which is being built, work is stopped briefly and all hands are poured a tot of whisky to celebrate.» —“Ebb and Flow” by Walter Muhonen Los Angeles Times May 1, 1960. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
A Los Angeles, California, listener shares the following pangram, a succinct but understandable statement that contains all 26 letters of the alphabet: A quick fox jumps high / Vexing birds, zigzag winds fly / Haikus trap words, why? This is part of...
Many of us struggled with the Old English poem “Beowulf” in high school. But what if you could actually hear “Beowulf” in the English of today? There’s a new translation by Maria Dahvana Headley that uses contemporary...