How It's Used

“Once upon a time, it was the announcement of the short list that could be relied upon to encourage literary commentators to break cover. Not any more. Faced with stiff competition, and some serious headline-hogging, from Orange and Whitbread [as of 2006, the "Costa Book Awards"], Britain's premier literary prize now resorts to the black arts of spin, announcing its long list a full two months before the ultimate showdown in the Guildhall.”

—Robert McCrum, “Anyone Can Win, Including Martin Amis,” The Observer, August 17, 2003.

“Boston's trade of Mr. Mirabelli to the San Diego Padres was a gamble that someone else could learn the black art of catching a knuckleball. But Mr. Mirabelli's replacement allowed 10 passed balls in five Wakefield starts, and there were rumors that the Yankees, of all teams, were trying to obtain him from San Diego. So yesterday Boston swung a deal with the Padres to get their old catcher back -- and told him to hurry.”

—Carl Bialik and Jason Fry, “Boston Draws First Blood in 2006 War with Yankees,” The Wall Street Journal, May 2, 2006.

"But discoveries about the science of aero and new ideas about its art created fresh shapes. Earl developed big fenders and the tailfin to defeat the bathtub. In the 1990s, ovals were decorated with large traditional grilles and aerodynamically harmless creases.

"Still, the wind tunnel continues to bring new discoveries. 'Aero,' said Michael Simcoe, a veteran exterior designer at G.M., 'remains a black art.'"

—Phil Patton, "Edgy, Yet Still Aerodynamic," The New York Times, December 19, 2006.

"Having spent most of his working life in the NBA, Toronto Raptors president Bryan Colangelo believes putting a team together is more black art than science. 'I always say there's a gut you have to listen to,' he said. 'It's your gut instinct on draft picks, on trades, on who might play and give you a chance to win that night.'”

—Michael Grange, "Playing the numbers game; Raptors join growing trend of teams using advanced statistics to gain an edge," The Globe and Mail, October 24, 2009.

"Setting up a networked printer has always been a black art in Windows, but now it's about as easy as on a Mac... Click 'Add a printer' and the choices on a home or office network appear on a list. Choose the one you want, and it's ready to use within a minute or two. If you have a laptop that you bring home from work, you can set it up so that it automatically switches default printers when you move between home and office. A new feature called HomeGroup makes it much easier to share files, printers, and other resources on a home network, but only among systems running Win 7."

—Stephen H. Wildstrom, "Win 7: Microsoft Gets It Right (Finally): The operating system is fast and loaded with smart features--unlike the disastrous Vista," BusinessWeek, October 26, 2009.

WordPlay

Black Magic, Necromancy

Links

Beyond eAlmanac
Wordnik entry on Black Art