澳門這個月20日將慶祝回歸20周年，但外交政策雜誌指出，沒有人比北京對這個日子賦予更大的意義，尤其是同樣是一國兩制下的香港歷經了六個月全球關注的反政府示威。澳門成為了北京向台灣唯一足可示範的成功一國兩制模式。根據文章指出，澳門對北京言聽計從，完全有拜當年宗主國葡萄牙政府的無能管治，經歷了一個世紀夏威夷大學教授克萊頓（Cathryn Clayton）形容是里斯本“不幸帝國主義”的管治（hapless imperialism）。
A hapless New York advertising executive is mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies, and is pursued across the country while he looks for a way to survive.
Hapless attempt at parallel parking in Belfast is internet hit 貝爾法斯特不幸的路邊停車嘗試成網路熱門影片
Don't Call Him Mom, or an Imbecile
By HANNAH SELIGSON
The hapless, bumbling father is a stock character in product marketing. The so-called daddy bloggers who attended the recent Dad 2.0 Summit are pushing to change that.
The seriousness was exciting to the modern reader, and if some of the sexual heretics were coy or pedantic there were also extracts from first-rate poets - Tennyson and Hopkins and Housman - in whom the power of language matched the power of a half-hidden subject.
hapless
Pronunciation: /ˈhaplɪs/
Definition of hapless
adjective
- coy
- 発音
- kɔ'i
- coyの慣用句
- coyly, （全1件）
[形]
1 （わざと）恥ずかしそうにする, 純情ぶる；あだっぽい.
［中フランス語←ラテン語quiētus（静かな）. △QUIET2］
coy・ly
[副]はにかんで, 恥ずかしそうに.
coy・ness
[名]disparage
(dĭ-spăr'ĭj)
tr.v., -aged, -ag·ing, -ag·es.
- To speak of in a slighting or disrespectful way; belittle. See synonyms at decry.
- To reduce in esteem or rank.
[Middle English disparagen, to degrade, from Old French desparager : des-, dis- + parage, high birth (from per, peer; see peer2).]
disparagement dis·par'age·ment n.disparager dis·par'ag·er n.
disparagingly dis·par'ag·ing·ly adv.
pedantic
- 音節
- pe • dan • tic
- 発音
- pədǽntik
- pedanticの慣用句
- pedantically, （全1件）
[形]学者ぶった, 物知り顔の, 衒学(げんがく)的な.
pe・dan・ti・cal・ly
[副]物知り顔に.
- ペダンチック【pedantic】
- ［形動］学問や知識をひけらかすさま。衒学(げんがく)的。「―な論文」
Bean counter
Meaning
A disparaging term for an accountant, or anyone who one who is excessively concerned with statistical records or accounts.
Origin
When researching the expression 'bean counter' there is a difficulty - the term has several different meanings. The common usage these days is as a name for a rather pedantic accountant, the implication being that, while most of us are content to buy beans by the bag, fussy accountants want to know exactly how many they are paying for. Before the first hapless accountant was called a 'bean counter', the phrase was also used as the name of a place where beans were sold, especially in the USA where 'pork and bean counters' were commonplace in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Added to that, our inventive predecessors used machines to count beans - and there's no need to tell you what they called them. This variability can lead to some confusion when scanning old newspaper records and other references. Nevertheless, I'll plough on and try to sort the leguminosae from the chaff.
Bean counters, that is, 'counters where beans were sold', came first. The US newspaper the Lewiston Evening Journal referred to these in June 1907:
The Clerk, seeing himself worsted by numbers... walked over to the bean counter where he again busied himself putting up packages for the evening trade.
This was followed by bean counters, that is, 'machines that count beans', which meaning is cited in the Pennsylvania newspaper The New Castle News, March 1916:
City Registry Clerk Stanley Treser has invented a new device. It is known as the bean counter.
Then, lastly, we get to bean counters, that is, 'accountants'. The earliest reference that I can find to the use of 'bean counter' with this meaning is in the US newspaper The Fort Wayne News And Sentinel, February 1919, in an article titled The Bean Counter:
The son of Josephus has been promoted in the quartermaster's department. "I suppose," remarked the Gentleman at the Adjacent Desk "I suppose that somebody has to count the beans for Colonel Roosevelt's fighting sons."
The 'fighting sons' were the US soldiers engaged in the latter part of WWI. The story alludes to the American politician Josephus Daniels who served in the administration of Theodore Roosevelt, who was himself a colonel during his military service and was a strong supporter of the US's involvement in WWI.
The phrase appears in Australia soon afterwards, either by migration from the USA or by independent coinage. An example is found in The Parliamentary Debates of the Australian House of Representatives, 1928:
It is not a bean counter's bill. There is no attempt to make any savings.
This insinuation that 'bean counters' were penny-pinching accountants who could't see the bigger picture chimes in well with the no-nonsense reputation of Australian politicians. The phrase thrived down under during the 1930/40s before becoming commonplace throughout the English-speaking world later in the 20th century.
[Adopting my previous guise as a bean-counting maths student, I couldn't resist counting the beans in the attached picture. Go on, you know you want to (or click here).]
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