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Perhaps overestimating the demand for phrase books, this compendium of food metaphors and idioms compiles 775 terms in alphabetic order. Entries open with variant phrasing and a list of coded titles keyed to 33 primary sources that range from the witty Hog on Ice and Other Curious Expressions (Harper, 1948) to the venerable Penguin Dictionary of English Idioms (1986). The work concludes with 61 pages of terms classified by subjects, such as bread , garbage , and maple .Palmatier's effort suggests the intense scrutiny of a wordsmith and purveyor of pop culture. His selection of entries covers the Shakespearian (caviar to the general ), the biblical (land of milk and honey), the Aesopian (sour grapes ), and the more contemporary (slush fund), along with regionalized metaphors (lamb fries for fried lamb's testicles) and drug slang (such as nose candy and stoned out of your gourd). His scholarship deserves respect for its objectivity and meticulous cross-referencing, which links po'boy with submarine sandwich and frappe with milk shake . Entries average 15 to 20 lines, each composed in readable, unfussy prose.Front matter clarifies and justifies the study of nonliteral terms based on cooking and food. Suggestions for using the dictionary are helpful, as are three pages of abbreviations and symbols used in the text and a two-page guide to comprehending entries. Proofreading is adequate but missed horse raddish . An index would have opened the text to language founts, providing access to phrases from Wordsworth, architecture, advertising, or railroad lore, to name a few possibilities.The surprise element of Palmatier's dictionary is the imbalance between the dull, pictureless presentation and the whopper price. Although it will likely enjoy a long shelf life, the cost of the book is about twice the value. Large public and academic libraries might consider adding the volume to their collections, but for the small public or school library struggling with budgets, the use of earlier phrase books or multiple Internet sources will suffice. RBB
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Review

"Recommended for high school, public, and academic libraries." -- Choice