Phrase of the week

[acmespaceship]

Ablation cascade.

(See the Wikipedia definition  )

Isn't this a great phrase?  I plan to work it into ordinary conversation quite often over the next few days.  I'm also betting the political blogs will start using it to describe the economy.  The phrase will be cutting edge for the next 48 hours, hit the top of the curve, and then fade into cliche by the middle of next week.  Newsweek will pick it up one week later and the Trib will use it by the end of March.  We are, of course, in the vanguard.  And we owe it all to Astronomy Picture of the Day.

Astronomy Picture of the Day is one of my best sources for new terminology, probably because I am miserably lax at reading scientific publications that are longer than a couple of paragraphs.  That's because I'm too busy; college auditions and a new work project have triggered an ablation cascade in my personal life.  There, now I've used it once already. 

Comments

[qtrhorserider.livejournal.com]

Umm, isn't that just a geeky way of saying domino effect???

[acmespaceship.livejournal.com]

Very true, but ever since Vietnam it's been hard to say "domino effect" without irony. I suppose it's also roughly equivalent to "chain reaction." To my inner ear, "chain reaction" always sounded neat and orderly (talk about irony) while "ablation cascade" implies a lot of good cathartic destruction and things going boom ... even though in space no one can hear you ablate.

However, except for the post above, I haven't found an opportunity to say "ablation cascade" so my plans were hollow. Perhaps I can work it into a discussion of trigonometry homework tonight.