The Skinny about Best Boys, Dollies, Green Rooms, Leads, and Other Media Lingo: The Language of the Media

For anyone who has ever stuck around for the credits at the end of a movie and wondered what gaffers and best boys do, Weiner's compendium of media slang, jargon and shoptalk will be a welcome read. A contributor to Public Relations Quarterly and author of Webster's New World Dictionary of Media and Communications, Weiner covers everything from advertising to broadcasting to slang used by comedians and explains the lineage of phrases such as ""break a leg,"" a good luck wish that dates back to ancient Greece, and technical terms such as double trucks, which are two-page spreads in newspapers and magazines. Essentially a repackaging of his dictionary content in essay form, the book overflows with trivia and definitions of media terms and is best consumed in small doses. While the narrative flow aids in reading, it also makes it difficult to hone in on terms. Thankfully, a 28 page index remedies this.