Halloween Costumes Sure to Scare and Some Business English Too

Have you ever heard of Snooki? I hadn't until recently when I found out that the Snooki Halloween costume is a bestseller this year. So who is Snooki? She's a character on the MTV show "Jersey Shore." She has big hair and she wears a short leopard dress.

According to a Wall Street Journal article: "Costumes based on Snooki's poofy hair...have been flying off store shelves."

Time to break for some vocabulary:

poofy hair - big hair that usually goes high up in the air before settling down again (not a compliment)

flying off the shelves - this is a great idioms that means to sell very fast. Another idiom that means the same thing is: to sell like hotcakes.

Snooki's costumes are flying off the shelves so fast, some shelves are now empty of Snooki wigs. According to the Wall Street Journal:

Retailers who are selling out of the official Pauly D Snooki wigs and other authorized wear are coming up with makeshift Jersey Halloween packages.

in a pinch, they're finding that they can put together a pretty good Snooki kit with skin bronzer, furry pink slippers, and one of last year's unsold Amy Winehouse wigs...

A return to Business English vocabulary:

makeshift - something made up to meet an urgent need; something put together quickly because it's needed

in a pinch - in a difficult situation, when no other options are available (You can hear the store owner yelling in desperation: "Oh no! We ran out of official Snooki wigs. Time to get out the old Amy Winehouse wigs...Maybe nobody will notice").

Happy Halloween! If you want to learn more business expressions, give yourself a TREAT and buy yourself a copy of the new book/audio CD "Speak Better Business English and Make More Money."

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