2011年1月31日 星期一

backslap, back and forth

Duberstein, Reagan's chief of staff, believes that Obama and Reagan share some traits: both loners more than backslappers, both heavily reliant on their spouses, both more trusting of their instincts than their advisers.

But the 44th President has some ways to go before matching the 40th in the communications department. "Obama for the first two years has tried to forge a consensus in Washington," Duberstein says. "He needs to take a page from Reagan and forge a consensus in America. Let his aides worry about the back and forth in D.C. He needs to be communicating with the American people."

back and forth
adv.
  1. Backward and forward; to and fro.
  2. From side to side.
back-and-forth back'-and-forth' (băk'ăn-fôrth', -fōrth') n. & adj.


backslap
(băk'slăp') pronunciation

v., -slapped, -slap·ping, -slaps. v.intr.
To demonstrate effusive goodwill.

v.tr.
To demonstrate effusive goodwill toward (another or others).

backslapper back'slap'per n.

gendered, martial law

Wikipedia Contributors Are Mostly Men
Sex and the City has two entries detailing its characters. The Simpsons has 45. Is Wikipedia gendered?


The struggle this time is ferocious. The assumption is that one contestant, the party's reform-minded general secretary, Mr Zhao Ziyang, faces certain defeat. He has not been seen since he visited the students in the square on May 19th—the day before Mr Li and President Yang imposed martial law on parts of the capital. But by June 8th Mr Li had been seen only twice since martial law began. Neither President Yang nor Mr Deng has been seen since the all-but-forgotten summit with Mr Gorbachev in mid-May. The one big clue in the political fight came early this week: the Supreme People's Court addressed its praise for the "essential" military action of June 4th to the Standing Committee of the Politburo in general—and to Mr Qiao Shi in particular.

martial law  戒嚴


gendered

(jĕn'dərd) pronunciation
adj.
Having or making gender-based distinctions: gendered behavior in children; gendered assumptions about the law's fairness.

2011年1月29日 星期六

keep up with the Joneses, coveting

Who needs to keep up with the Joneses? What people really care about is keeping up with the Rockefellers. That’s the main theme of “The Haves and the Have-Nots,” an eclectic book on inequality that attempts to document the long history of coveting by the poor, and the grim consequences of that coveting.

2011年1月26日 星期三

A Day in the Life of a Piano Mover

Video: A Day in the Life of a Piano Mover

Being a piano mover in New York City involves a host of special talents. Bill Hennessy, the owner of Keyboard Express, explains why the biggest keys to moving a nine-foot concert grand are quick thinking and parking skills.

2011年1月25日 星期二

Readies Pay Wall

New York Times Readies Pay Wall
The New York Times next month is expected to begin offering a long-anticipated menu of online subscription packages, marking an important test for consumer willingness to pay for news.

2011年1月20日 星期四

on the go, look up, a big hug

For Google to maintain its dominance, it has needed to follow them, which it has been doing with apps to search the Web on the go, look up directions, watch videos, find local businesses and even make phone calls.

按下看大圖
漫畫來源: Ted Goff

on the go
In constant activity, very busy, as in I'm exhausted--I've been on the go since eight this morning. [Mid-1800s]


goose chase after the Red Baron, Curse you,

WWI Flying Ace
WWI Flying Ace
What kind of plane does Snoopy imagine himself flying as a World War I pilot? Envisioning himself as a WWI flying ace, Peanuts character Snoopy picures himself flying a Sopwith Camel in his wild goose chase after the Red Baron. Thomas Sopwith, born on January 18, 1888, turned a hobby of flying into an industry of building planes, the most famous of which at the time was the Sopwith Camel. Sopwith's company built more than 5,700 of the single-seat fighters, which shot down more enemy aircraft than any other Allied fighter plane in the war. After the war, Sopwith went on to work as chairman of his new airplane firm, Hawker Aircraft. But, his real love by then was reserved for yachting. Although he never won the America's Cup, Sopwith came mighty close in 1934. In 1995, he was inducted into the America's Cup Hall of Fame.

Quote:

"Curse you, Red Baron!" Snoopy, to his imagined WWI enemy

2011年1月19日 星期三

make the cut/make cut

Business Leaders Make Cut at State Dinner

Well-known Chinese-Americans, along with the heads of Microsoft, Boeing, Goldman Sachs and Walt Disney, joined President Obama and President Hu Jintao of China.




make the cut
((米略式))(なんとか)期待に応える;うまくやってのける;《ゴルフ》(予選で勝って)決勝ラウンドへ進む.

2011年1月18日 星期二

intromit, in common purpose

讀《林肯新傳》 (Abraham Lincoln: A Biography,1952) 或多少可助統獨之思考

讀《林肯新傳》 (Abraham Lincoln: A Biography,1952) 或多少可助統獨之思考

《林肯新傳》 作者:(美)湯馬士(Benjamin Thomas)著;何祖紹譯出版社:今日世界出版社 出版時間:1963

胡適應該沒機會讀這本書
關心國是者 請用 a common country 查
Abraham Lincoln: A Biography - Google 圖書結果
Benjamin P. Thomas, Michael Burlingame - 2008 - Biography & Autobiography - 576 頁

可得出美國內戰之後求統一 不過它追求的是彼此的目的的一致 unify a country in common purpose


偏僻字 紐約時報沒出現過

intromit (in-truh-MIT)

verb tr.: To enter, send, or admit.
[動](〜・ted, 〜・ting)(他)…を(…の中に)差し込む, 挿入する((into ...)).
Etymology
From Latin intromittere, from intro- (inwardly) + mittere (to send). Earliest documented use: 1600.

Usage

"I never tire of intromitting a hardboiled egg into a milk bottle, shell and all." — Raymond Sokolov; Playing With Our Food; The Wall Street Journal (New York); Nov 3, 2007.

godwottery, God wot! The Great War

godwottery (god-WOT-uhr-ee)

noun
1. Gardening marked by an affected and elaborate style.
2. Affected use of archaic language.

Etymology
From the line "A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot!" in a poem by Thomas Edward Brown (1830-1897)

Now here is a word with a dual personality. Poet T.E. Brown unwittingly helped coin it when he wrote a poem describing his garden filled with all that came to his mind: grotto, pool, ferns, roses, fish, and more.
And when he needed a word to rhyme with the line "Rose plot," he came up with "God wot! " He used "wot", an archaic term that's a variant of wit (to know), to mean "God knows!" and it stood out among other contemporary words in the poem.
If you wish to create your own godwottery, we recommend: sundials, gnomes, fairies, plastic sculptures, fake rockery, pump-driven streams, and wrought-iron furniture. A pair of pink flamingos will round it out nicely.

Usage
"And an important thing about all this godwottery -- as Anthony Burgess calls it -- is that all types and classes embrace it." — Paul Fussell; The Great War 第一次世界大戰 and Modern Memory; Oxford University Press; 2000.



wot
(wŏt) pronunciation
v.
First and third person singular present tense of wit2.

[Middle English wat, from Old English wāt.]


wit2 (wĭt) pronunciation

v. Archaic, wist (wĭst), wit·ting (wĭt'ĭng), first and third person singular present tense, wot (wŏt). v.tr.
To be or become aware of; learn.

v.intr.
To know.

idiom:

to wit

  1. That is to say; namely.

[Middle English, from Old English witan.]



2011年1月16日 星期日

live high on the hog/ eating high off the hog


China's millionaires live high on the hog

BY JUN WAKAMATSU STAFF WRITER

2011/01/17


For China's wealthy, taking three overseas vacations a year and keeping three cars in the garage is nothing to get excited about.

A survey by Hurun Research Institute found that many of the so-called "Qianwan Fuhao," a Chinese term referring to people with personal wealth in excess of 10 million yuan (around 126 million yen, or $1.52 million), had made their fortunes through real estate and stock market investments.

Their average age is 39, and average annual personal consumption is 1.9 million yuan (around 24 million yen), more than 60 times the average yearly income of workers in Chinese cities.

The Qianwan Fuhao own an average of 3.3 cars, and take 15 vacation days a year, which many said they spend going on vacations, playing golf and reading. They take vacations overseas an average of 2.9 times a year, enjoy wine and whisky, and 60 percent are non-smokers.

Their favorite overseas travel destination is France, followed by the United States and Australia, with Japan coming in fourth. Patek Philippe watches and Cartier jewelry are among their favorite brands.

They also tend to be bullish about the prospects for the Chinese economy over the next two years, with 54 percent responding that they are "extremely confident." Many are putting money into manufacturing ventures, while buying real estate remains popular.

The survey was carried out by Hurun, a privately owned Chinese firm, between April and November 2010. Interviews were conducted with 401 individuals with personal fortunes of 10 million yuan or more. Of the total, 45 had wealth in excess of 100 million yuan, and their average age was 43.




HIGH OFF THE HOG, EAT
Also, live high on the hog. Prosper, live luxuriously, as in When Aunt Ida dies and they inherit her estate, they'll be eating high off the hog, or Since their loan was approved, they've been living high on the hog. It alludes to the choicest cuts of meat, which are found on a pig's upper flanks. [Late 1800s]



2011年1月15日 星期六

jagged, droning, by-the-numbers

droning, by-the-numbers

To observe that Mr. Robb’s books are unusual is to say several things at once. Most obviously, they sometimes apply hardy, free-range kinds of research. “The Discovery of France” was given a jolt of life by his back-road explorations on a bicycle. (“This book,” he wrote, “is the result of 14,000 miles in the saddle and four years in the library.”) They also take unusual forms. In Mr. Robb’s new book one chapter is written like a screenplay, while another employs witty question-and-answer sections that function like lemon juice squeezed over a platter of oysters. Clearly Mr. Robb is restless, and he has little interest in being a droning, by-the-numbers tour guide.


drone

(drōn) pronunciation

v., droned, dron·ing, drones. v.intr.
  1. To make a continuous low dull humming sound: "Somewhere an electric fan droned without end" (William Styron).
  2. To speak in a monotonous tone: The lecturer droned on for hours.
  3. To pass or act in a monotonous way.
v.tr.
To utter in a monotonous low tone: "The mosquitoes droned their angry chant" (W. Somerset Maugham).

n.
  1. A continuous low humming or buzzing sound.
  2. Music.
    1. Any of the pipes of a bagpipe that lack finger holes and produce a single tone.
    2. A long sustained tone.
    3. Any of various instruments that produce only a constant pitch.

[From DRONE1 (from the bee's humming sound).]




jagged

Did I mention that he is also jaggedly funny? His prose approximates Ian McEwan’s by way of Anthony Lane. In his new book a group of Parisians in the Latin Quarter in the 1840s don’t die from disease, they die from “various illnesses known collectively as ‘lack of money.’ ”


jagged

(jăg'ĭd) pronunciation
adj.
  1. Marked by irregular projections and indentations on the edge or surface. See synonyms at rough.
  2. Having a rough or harsh quality: "not a stutter exactly but a jagged sound, as if the words were being broken-off from some other, stronger current of words deep inside" (Anne Tyler).
jaggedly jag'ged·ly adv.
jaggedness jag'ged·ness n.

sucking/parping sound, pâtisseries, erections

sucking/parping sound, pâtisseries, erections

Mr. Robb’s prose is fleet and ingenious. He describes the “sucking sound” of modern French police sirens, the “snickering” of certain neon signs, the melodious “parping of automobiles.” His good humor is infectious. When young men were finally allowed to visit young women in Parisian college dormitories in the 1960s, he writes that they brought “wine, cigarettes, Tunisian pâtisseries, hot dogs and erections.” Describing the soulless towers in immigrant suburban Paris, he notes dryly: “The planes coming in to land at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle always missed them, but the towers were falling apart anyway.”



erection
[名]
1 [U](体の)直立, 起立;建立, 建設;(機械の)組み立て;(記録の)樹立;(制度などの)創設
the erection of a monument
記念碑の建立.
2 ((形式))建造物(建物・柱・塔・像など).
3 [U][C](器官, 特に性器の)勃起(ぼっき)
get [have] an erection
勃起する.
hard-on
n. Vulgar Slang
An erection of the penis.



  • [pətísəri]

[名](複 〜s)フランス製のパン・ケーキ(の販売店).

A pâtisserie is the type of French bakery that specializes in pastries and sweets. In France, it is a legally controlled title that may only be used by bakeries that employ a licensed maître pâtissier (master pastry chef).

In France, the pâtissier is a pastry chef who has completed a lengthy training process, typically an apprenticeship, and passed a written examination.[1] Often found in partnership with a boulangerie, pâtisseries are a common sight in towns and villages in France.



2011年1月12日 星期三

farm out, outsourcing

Robots Patrolling Power Lines

The Electric Power Research Institute hopes to farm out the job of inspecting serious glitches in power lines to robots.
farm out
Assign something to an outsider; subcontract something. For example, The contractor was so busy he had to farm out two jobs to a colleague, or When their mother was hospitalized, the children had to be farmed out to the nearest relatives. This term originally referred to letting or leasing land. Today it usually refers to subcontracting work or the care of a dependent to another. In baseball it means "to assign a player to a lesser (farm) league," as opposed to a big league. [Mid-1600s]

outsourcing

(out'sôr'sĭng, -sōr'-) pronunciation

n.
The procuring of services or products, such as the parts used in manufacturing a motor vehicle, from an outside supplier or manufacturer in order to cut costs.


conte philosophique

兩次讀到 conte philosophique


其實,這是極細節,只是供有興趣的人參考。

2005/10/10 讀 I. Calvino 【伊塔羅.卡爾維諾( Italo Calvino)著《為什麼讀經典》 ( Why Read the Classics? 1991 ),參考(李桂蜜譯,台北:時報出版, 2005)。】
談 Cyrano on the Moon(其漢譯『西哈諾在月球』)。
讀到
This is the beginning of conte philosophique…..

就去信問瑞麟兄。「請有空代查、 解釋 conte philosophique 有人翻譯為「哲學寓言」。
我懷疑。」
-----
RL:「conte翻譯成寓言或許是比較偏了些,一般是指短篇小說。可是,有些字典也把conte解釋作伯爵,好像是義大利文的關係。」(hc 案:參考http://www.answers.com/conte 最後之欄。)

conte, the French word for a tale, applied since the 19th century to short stories, but previously used to denote a more fanciful kind of short prose fiction, usually both witty and morally instructive. Voltaire's Zadig (1747) and Candide (1759 老實人) belong to this category, along with some works by Perrault, La Fontaine, and others.

presence of God

real presence 聖體實在論


presence :臨在;鑒臨;親在:指兩存有物某種程度的互相滲透。造物主天主臨在於宇宙,尤其與我們人類同在,包括基督親臨信徒中,尤指基督親在聖體聖事中。

presence at Mass :參與彌撒;與祭。

presence of God :天主的鑒臨;天主的臨在:無所不在的天主,此時此刻就在我們面前,善人的靈魂是天主的聖殿。

Presentation of Mary :獻聖母于聖殿(主堂);聖母奉獻日紀念:根據偽經 Apocrypha 記載,瑪利亞幼年時,其父母將她獻於聖殿;教會早在第六世紀就慶祝此節日。曾一度被取消,十六世紀又恢復,在十一月廿一日慶祝。

Presentation of the Lord :聖母獻耶穌于聖殿(主堂):慶日在二月二日。

2011年1月10日 星期一

chicken noodle soup

A counter using inductive power to create heat, so a can of chicken noodle soup can be prepared on the spot.

chicken noodle soup 即日本發明之泡麵/ 方便麵

2011年1月9日 星期日

parasol protrudes . decoct

A tea ceremony parasol protrudes from the shop entrance. Before the children's eyes is a glass pot. The liquid is light green, denoting "sencha" tea permeating in the hot water as the tea leaves slowly decoct. When poured into a teacup and sipped, the tea has a delicate aroma and piercing sweetness.

decoct
(dĭ-kŏkt') pronunciation
tr.v., -coct·ed, -coct·ing, -cocts.
  1. To extract the flavor of by boiling.
  2. To make concentrated; boil down.

[Middle English decocten, to boil, from Latin dēcoquere, dēcoct-, to boil down or away : dē-, de- + coquere, to boil, to cook.]

decoction de·coc'tion n.





parasol

(păr'ə-sôl', -sŏl') pronunciation
n.
A light, usually small umbrella carried as protection from the sun.

[French, from Italian parasole : parare, to shield (from Latin parāre, to prepare) + sole, sun (from Latin sōl).]

parasoled par'a·soled' adj.

2011年1月7日 星期五

scrutineers and invigilators, aboveboard

Open
The Datastore is part of a larger policy of openness decreed by London Mayor Boris Johnson, who hopes the open information will give rise to "a great army of unpaid scrutineers and invigilators" who would keep city politicians aboveboard. One site built from the data, WhereDoesMyMoneyGo.org, makes it easy for citizens to see how their taxes are spent.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,2040574,00.html#ixzz1AP0CjbA0

aboveboard

(ə-bŭv'bôrd', -bōrd') pronunciation
adv. & adj.
Without deceit or trickery; straightforward.

[Originally a gambling term referring to the fact that a gambler whose hands were above the board or gaming table could not engage in trickery, such as changing cards, below the table.]



wedding manual, social event, conduct code

Lawmakers say Lei Yu-chi wrote a 20-plus page wedding manual and spent four months rehearsing procedures, much like he would prepare for a military exercise.
The Defense Ministry said on Thursday it will decide whether Gen Lei violated the military conduct code.
Critics say the wedding reflects a culture where senior officers use social events to advance their careers, rather than relying on battlefield achievements.
Martial opportunities for Taiwanese officers have faded with the marked reduction in tensions between China and Taiwan.
The sides split amid civil war in 1949.



event

NOUN

  • 1A thing that happens or takes place, especially one of importance.
    ‘the momentous political events of the late 1980s’
    1. 1.1A planned public or social occasion.
      ‘staff have been holding a number of events to raise money for charity’
    2. 1.2Each of several particular contests making up a sports competition.
      ‘he repeated the success in the four-lap, 600 cc event’
    3. 1.3Physics A single occurrence of a process, e.g. the ionization of one atom.

2011年1月6日 星期四

future perfect/Past Imperfect

FUTURE PERFECT 為來完成式 常被用來當作品的書名等
A verb tense that expresses action completed by a specified time in the future and that is formed in English by combining will have or shall have with a past participle.





"在《責任的重負》翻譯過程中,我同朱特教授有過幾次通信。他有一部研究歐洲知識分子向蘇聯「朝聖」的代表作《不完美的過去》(Past Imperfect),我問他,“imperfect”應當翻譯成「不完美的」還是「未完成的」?教授覆函道:你說得對,“Past Imperfect”兼有你提到的兩重涵義,一個未結束、未完成(unfinished or incomplete)的昨天,也是一個道德上、形式上受損(spoiled)的——或用你的話說, 「被玷污」的——不完美的昨天。「中文裡有一個能涵蓋兩種意思的詞嗎?」"

Genchi genbutsu

Genchi genbutsu is a Japanese phrase meaning "go and see for yourself," which is a central pillar of the Toyota Way, the famous management system adopted by the Japanese car company. We think we see what we see, but we don't. We really see what we think. The best way to understand a problem is to go and see it on the shop floor.

中文品質筆記: Gemba, Genchi, Genbutsu, 現場﹑現地﹑現物

2006年12月12日 ... 吾人到現場後﹐客觀﹑耐心地觀察環境(Genchi﹐げんち﹐現地)與作業對象(Genbutsu
げんぶつ﹐現物)﹐遇到疑問以問五個為什麼的精神﹐必定能夠做到有效 ...