five-thousand-mile screwdriver
n.— «When people say, ‘You screwed up the postwar plan,’ what people don’t understand is that we had all kinds of plans. But when Bremer”—Paul Bremer, who was appointed by President Bush to oversee the rebuilding of Iraq—“went over there, he was given autonomy over all kinds of plans that he didn’t implement. The Secretary didn’t want to use the five-thousand-mile screwdriver.”» —“A Little Learning” by Jeffrey Goldberg New Yorker May 9, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
We asked for your thoughts about whether cursive writing should be taught in schools — and many of you replied with a resounding “Yes!” You said cursive helps develop fine motor skills, improves mental focus, and lets you read old...
If you speak both German and Spanish, you may find yourself reaching for a German word instead of a Spanish one, and vice versa. This puzzling experience is so common among polyglots that linguists have a name for it. • The best writers create...