cleanout
n.— «Salvation comes in the form of large cleansing cool winds that sweep in from the northwest. But as luck would have it, Rochester is the last to benefit from Mother Nature’s air freshener. After pushing through Detroit Lakes, St. Cloud and the Twin Cities, what some experts call the “cleanout” finally reaches Rochester. “You’re the first to get dirty, and you should be the last to get clean,” said Mark Sulzbach, public information officer for the air quality unit of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.» —“Many factors to blame for our bad air” by Matthew Stolle Post-Bulletin (Rochester, Minnesota) Mar. 7, 2009. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
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...
Following our conversation about the secret cup code of the old Harvey House restaurant chain, a listener in Minneapolis, Minnesota, shares a far more complicated and efficient restaurant code, the elaborate plate marking system used at Waffle House...