at work in the studio

Vivid

psychopomp
noun: A guide of souls, one who escorts soul of a newly-deceased to the afterlife.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek psychopompos (conductor of souls), from psycho-, from psyche (breath, spirit, soul) + pompos (conductor, guide).

USAGE:
“Harold Bloom here presents himself as a mystagogue and a soothsayer, a psychopomp of our times, conducting souls into unknown territories.”
Marina Warner; Where Angels Tread; The Washington Post; Sep 15, 1996
July 28, 2010 via Cathy A.Word.A. Day

toxic cloud of snark

October 3, 2008 from the NYT

Brett Favre, freethinking huckleberry in the N.F.L., tries to make something happen one last time.

October 30, 2008, from the NYT

… That it was an alpenhorn blast of post-Gutenbergian revalorization.

Nicholson Baker July 30, 2009, from the NY