clay pigeon
n.— «A GOP leadership aide and the White House predicted Monday that enough Republicans are prepared to join Democrats to limit debate on the motion to proceed to the bill (S 1639). That would keep the measure alive and allow the Senate to begin debate on nearly two dozen amendments, using a rare procedure called a “clay pigeon” to speed the normally slow Senate process. After most of the amendments have been acted on, another cloture vote would come on the bill itself, probably Thursday.» —“Vote Tests Immigration Momentum” by Michael Sandler CQ.com June 25, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Books were rare treasures in the Middle Ages, painstakingly copied out by hand. So how to protect them from theft? Scribes sometimes added a curse to the first page of those books that was supposed to keep thieves away — and some were as vicious as...
It’s hard to imagine now, but there was a time when people disagreed over the best word to use when answering the phone. Alexander Graham Bell suggested answering with ahoy! but Thomas Edison was partial to hello! A fascinating new book about...