zero-dollar tour
n.— «Many of these tours are what the industry calls zero-dollar tours, providing no profit margin. Instead, the agents make their money by diverting their groups to jewelers or restaurants that give them a commission on sales.» —“Chinese on a Grand Tour” by Wayne Arnold in Singapore New York Times Oct. 21, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
An anadrome is a word that forms a whole new word when you spell it backwards. For example, the word “stressed” spelled backwards is “desserts.” Some people’s first names are anadromes. There’s the girl named Noel...
Sigrin writes from Albany, New York, that she misheard our earlier conversation about the expression shaving yak hair meaning “performing a monotonous, tedious task.” At first she thought we said shaving gnat hair, which she figures is...