working mah-jongg
n.— «A pop-expression, “working mah-jongg,” was coined to describe how developers can easily charm state bankers into big-dollar loans.» —“China’s Supersized Mall” by Robert Marquand in Beijing, China ABC News (U.S.) Dec. 1, 2004. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
After hearing our conversation about how dictionaries decide on a preferred pronunciation, and specifically about how to pronounce aioli, Vern from San Diego, California, wrote to say that a friend once made fun of him for pronouncing grimace with a...