porn mode n.— «With Version 3.5, Firefox joins most other modern browsers with the ability to run in a private browsing mode (often euphemistically knows as “porn mode”). When in this mode, the browser does not save data from the browsing...
Twinjury n.— «On May 29th, James Coleman of Bristol smacked his skull on a tree branch while filing updates to the Twitter service (or tweeting) from his Blackberry during a run. His accident spawned a new word: a “Twinjury...
full Thornton n.— «Faceoff horse/spiritual leader Rod Brind’Amour, who contributed 18 points to the Canes’ Cup run in ‘06, went 0-0 -0 in the seven games against the Devils. Equally alarming, Cole matched Brind’Amour zero for zero (often...
If you’re facing a Hobson’s choice, you don’t really have much to choose from. The phrase describes a situation in which your options are either to take what’s offered, or else take nothing at all. Martha offers some choice...
swillathon n.— «Lobbyists split, stack and otherwise run rings around rules on bacchanal expense reporting; there are “group” events exempt from disclosure and there are free trips to supposed business conferences in romantic...
A recent article in The New Yorker magazine about the late writer David Foster Wallace has Martha musing about Wallace’s stem-winding sentences, and the word stem-winder.