Buce's definitions

EBITDA

In finance, "earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization," sometimes "EBIT-DA." In accounting, a way-station in the slow morph from "conceptual" to "pure cash flow" reporting. Compare "EBAWDWTCAE"--"earnings before anything we don't want to count as expenses."

The net is negative but the EBITDA is sensational.

by Buce July 11, 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 8, 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

Money shot

In a porn flic, the one that earns the star her (occasionally his) large fee--the ugly or disgusting or degrading stuff that pays so well. In more general (and more anodyne) usage, any really important point, the point not to be overlooked.

The money shot in the prospectus is the paragraph where they admit they will never make any money.

by Buce July 11, 2005

E.V.O.O.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil, the stuff Rachel Ray uses to cook with, dress salads with, and, I should hope, roll around with her buddies in after a hard week slaving over a hot stove. The usage seems to be spilling over to other cooking shows as well, but caution: no matter what Rachel tells you, if you are cooking, E.V.O.O. is a waste; save it for salads and use more ordinary oil at the stove. For rolling around in, I should think you could do just as well with Mazola.

(chirrupy:) "Start with a little E.V.O.O.!"--Rachel, beginning a culinary adventure.

by buce October 1, 2005

pandersnatch

A riff on "bandersnatch," rom Jabberwocky, by Lewis Carroll. Also, variously, a band, an Ed McBain novel, a satirical e-journal, etc.

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!

by buce September 5, 2005

cad and bounder

This phrase is worth noting precisely because it does not belong in this dictionary: it makes sense in a moral universe that has utterly vanished. The last "cad and bounder" died, perhaps, about 1947 (see London Daily Telegraph obituaries for further evidence).

Although they are appropriately linked, the precise meanings differ. A "cad" is one who does harm to a woman's honor or sense of self-worth as, for example, by taking her for a garden walk when he has no intention of marrying her. A "bounder" is a presumptious upstart, seemingly ignorant of, but perhaps merely indifferent to, fundamental norms of propriety.

You, sir, are a cad and a bounder.

A cad perhaps, but no bounder. My family goes back to William I.

by Buce August 9, 2005