whim-wham

   In a Bluehead regiment, he would probably just have had to scrub the oxidation off with his whim-wham, but the Greenheads are very detail-oriented and traditional.

Ain't Comin' Back 2010

"Rabbit Test", recently published at Fantastic Metropolis, is another story in the mode of autobiographical fabulism, and though its metaphysical whim-wham is less mind-bending than in some of Ford's other stories, nevertheless it is a strange and affecting tale, one which could easily have been published in a mainstream literary magazine indeed, I often wonder why The New Yorker hasn't snapped Ford up, as he'd be a perfect fit for their pages.

Archive 2004-05-01 2004

Under an aristocracy, for example, such as prevailed, in one form or another, in England, Germany, Italy and France before the war, it is possible to give doctrinaires a relatively free rein, for even if they succeed in converting the mob to their whim-wham, there remain insuperable impediments to its adoption and execution as law.

The American Credo A Contribution Toward the Interpretation of the National Mind George Jean Nathan 1920

So much for the commencement of this long whim-wham.

Twice Told Tales Nathaniel Hawthorne 1834

"In our family whim-wham is a code, a defanged reference to any number of moods and psychological disorders, be they depressive, manic, or schizoaffective," writes poet David Lovelace in this visceral memoir.

AltWeeklies.com Site Feed 2008

In one of the best of these stories, "Bright Morning", collected in The Fantasy Writer's Assistant, the narrator describes his novels as "fantasy/adventure stories with a modicum of metaphysical whim-wham that some find to be insightful and others have termed 'overcooked navel gazing'", a description that could even more easily apply to this particular strand of Ford's short fiction, though "overcooked" is not a term I would think of for these stories, and if there is navel-gazing, it's a superficial element necessary to the overall effect.

Archive 2004-05-01 2004

"So," the Texan said, nodding, "you’ve been swallowin’ down a whim-wham or two your ownself?"

Rebel Spurs Andre Norton 1958

I was saying break out directly with a rash desire to spend more money upon a whim-wham to wind up the sun. "

The Weathercock Being the Adventures of a Boy with a Bias George Manville Fenn 1870

He has gone to buy screws, or something, to make a whim-wham to wind up the sun. "

The Weathercock Being the Adventures of a Boy with a Bias George Manville Fenn 1870