Related:

• A large dog will have a surprising effect on your life.
• What they said: What they meant: "You will be fortunate if you can get him to work for you.
  (We certainly never succeeded.) There is no other employee with whom I can adequately compare him....
• aga n. [WPI] A cuspy but bogus raving story about N random broken people.
  Here is a classic example of the saga form, as told by Guy L....
• Do you think that illiterate people get the full effect of alphabet soup?
• EFFECT, n. The second of two phenomena which always occur together in the same order.
  The first, called a Cause, is said to generate the other -- which is no more sensible than it would be for one who has never seen a dog except in the pursuit of a rabbit to declare the rabbit the cause of a dog....
• Marge: Kids, I have some bad news. I'm afraid your great-aunt Gladys has.
  .. passed on. Bart: Gladys, Gladys... big puffy hair, about yea high, big dent in forehead?...
• videotex n. obs. An electronic service offering people the privilege of paying to read the weather on their television screens instead of having somebody read it to them for free while they brush their teeth.
  The idea bombed everywhere it wasn't government-subsidized, because by the time videotex was practical the installed base of personal computers could hook up to timesharing services and do the things for which videotex might have been worthwhile better and cheaper....
• videotex: n. obs. An electronic service offering people the privilege of paying to read the weather on their television screens instead of having somebody read it to them for free while they brush their teeth.
  The idea bombed everywhere it wasn't government-subsidized, because by the time videotex was practical the installed base of personal computers could hook up to timesharing services and do the things for which videotex might have been worthwhile better and cheaper....
• DONATION Often promoted as the best way of getting rid of your money while feeling good about it, donation in fact has the opposite effect.
  The vast majority feel awkward as they hand over the money, clumsily trying to avoid the $...