phrase of the day: wildcat strike

The phrase of the day is wildcat strike:


An employee work stoppage that is not authorized by the Labor Union to which the employees belong.  (legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com)


"On a later night, however, they return to lob Molotov cocktails, and a security guard is hurt; to avoid trouble, the friends take off for the summer break, hitching a ride to Italy with a revolutionary film collective in (of course) a VW van.  The sun glares, the strikes are wildcat, and the masses await enlightenment through cinema.  Bliss is it in that dawn to be alive."

 - Anthony Lane, "Battle weary: 'Iron Man 3' and 'Something in the Air'", 6 May 2013 The New Yorker

word of the day: fug

The word of the day is fug:

colloq. (orig dial. and School slang).

A thick, close, stuffy atmosphere, esp. that of a room overcrowded and with little or no ventilation. (OED)

"Instead, they exist in a constant fug that I took for cigarette smoke or tear gas, but that slowly resolves itself into a nimbus of ill-defined needs - a haze of becoming, with the foothills of adulthood starting to loom ahead."

 - Anthony Lane, "Battle weary: 'Iron Man 3' and 'Something in the Air'", 6 May 2013 The New Yorker