The Boston Globe this Sunday took a look at a dialect* near and dear to this scribbler's heart: Variety speak, about which no less an eminence than George Bernard Shaw had this to say:
I thought I knew the English language until one day I saw Variety in a friend's home. Upon my soul, I didn't understand a word of it.
Here are just a few familiar terms that have been coined by Hollywood's paper of record over the years: punch line, payola, show biz, strip-tease, and shoot-'em-up.
And, there's a quiz!
*You know, besides Grambo's argot.
