cigar

Sometimes, only a cigar.

Sometimes a cigar is only a cigar.--Freud

by Buce August 26, 2005

helicopter parent

The bane of the dean's existence. The parent who hovers and flaps his wings while the kid lives in his shadow. Particularly prevalent at high-priced colleges, where parents feel obliged (or entitled) to intervene on issues down to the candlepower of the lightbulbs.

Yes, helicopter parent, your intentions are good, but that rotor of yours is causing a din.--Felix Carroll, Albany Times Union, January 27, 2005

by Buce September 05, 2005

You want room?

Pacific Northwest localism for: do you want room for cream in your coffee? Unaccountably, it seems not (as of this writing) to have spread down into Northern California.

I'd rather say 'you want room?' than 'you want fries with that?'

by Buce August 09, 2005

rounding off money

In high school math, the stuff after the zero. In high society, a sum, no matter how large, too small to impress the person you want to impress. Cf. chump change.

He left her with $5 million, but in their crowd, that is just rounding off money.

by Buce September 25, 2005

chump change

The point about chump change, in the sense of money, is that the amount varies with the context. For the divorced papa paying child support, a job that pays $9 an hour offers chump change. For the 50-year-old laid off after 20 years' service, a severance package of $200,000 is chump change. What would count as chump change Cf. rounding off money.

I work 20 years for chump change and what do I get when I leave? Chump change.

by Buce October 01, 2005

nfm

Well, I thought it stood for "no further message"--something to add to the subject line to an email, when the subject line is the email, to save the recipient the nuisance of opening the, um, message. If it does not mean this, it should.

And the mule you road in on, NFM

by Buce August 26, 2005

Poofter

Male homosexual, but the particular nuance is not easy to isolate. On the surface, it is clearly a term of opprobrium. But no one can say it with a straight face, and so it takes on the air of cheerful self-mockery that we associate with Dame Edna or Crocodile Dundee.

Nobody out there but poofters sand sellers of loose joints.

by Buce August 08, 2005