the buzz log
Phrase of the Day: Per Diem
It's always nice to see a little Latin tossed into the online mix. Thanks to growing scrutiny of Sarah Palin's "per diem" travel expenses as governor, the two-word term has enjoyed an unexpected rush of popularity in Search.
So what does "per diem" mean? The American Heritage dictionary defines it simply as "an allowance for daily expenses." Within this context, AP says, "Per diem payments are meant for meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business."
According to The Washington Post, Governor Palin charged per diem costs to the state of Alaska for more than 300 nights she stayed at home with the kids. The resulting brouhaha has propelled queries like "per diem" and "palin per diem" up the Search charts. Not bad for a stuffy old phrase.
Filed under: Politics, News, Sarah Palin
the buzz log
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what's the buzz?
A subject's buzz score is the percentage of Yahoo! users searching for that subject on a given day, multiplied by a constant to make the number easier to read. Weekly leaders are the subjects with the greatest average buzz score for a given week.
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