cougar, shower, vuvuzela trumpet

 On July 11, 1979, the abandoned United States space station Skylab made a spectacular return to Earth, burning up in the atmosphere and showering debris over the Indian Ocean and Australia.

For a decade now we've been chronicling the emergence of cougars in the dating jungle: women, usually over 40, who hunt younger men, or cubs, and shower them with a tantalizingly experienced kind of love — and lots of Abba music. There are cougar celebrities — 47-year-old Demi Moore married 32-year-old Ashton Kutcher — cougar books, cougar cruises and, perhaps the ultimate affirmation, cougar sitcoms, including the popular Cougar Town, starring real-life cougar Courteney Cox. What further proof do we need of this species' existence?

Michael Dunn isn't buying it. The noted psychology researcher at the University of Wales Institute in Cardiff has just released a study that he insists renders the cougar craze a "myth."

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2011796,00.html?xid=newsletter-weekly#ixzz0xUXAKWga

 
 vuvuzela trumpet 2009
Japan football chief seeks vuvuzela ban
USA Today
TOKYO (AP) — The head of Japan's football association wants FIFA to ban vuvuzela trumpets at the World Cup next year. Japan Football Association President ...

Vuvuzela made of plastic

A vuvuzela, sometimes called a "lepatata" (its Setswana name) or a stadium horn, is a blowing horn, approximately one metre in length, commonly blown by fans at football matches in South Africa. The origin of the name is disputed. It may originate from the Zulu for "making noise," from the "vuvu" sound it makes, or from township slang related to the word for "shower."^[1]

shower[show・er¹]

• レベル：大学入試程度
• 発音記号[ʃáuər]

[名]

1 シャワー(shower bath)

take ［have］ a quick shower
さっとシャワーを浴びる .

2 ((しばしば〜s))短時間で止む雨, にわか雨, 夕立

be caught in a shower
にわか雨にあう.

3 ((しばしばa 〜))（涙・弾丸などの）雨, 多量((of ...))

a shower of bullets ［kisses］
弾丸［キス］の雨

a shower of presents
たくさんの贈り物 .

4 ((米))（主に花嫁・母になる人の）祝い品贈呈パーティー(shower party).

5 ((英略式))おろかな［不愉快な, だらしのない, 怠惰な］人（々）.

━━[動](他)

1 …をにわか雨でぬらす；…に水を注ぐ.

2 〈物・恩顧・非難などを〉（人に）浴びせる, 注ぐ((on ...))；〈人に〉（…を）惜しみなく与える((with ...))

shower questions on a person ［＝shower a person with questions］
人に矢つぎばやに質問を浴びせる.

━━(自)

1 ((itを主語にして))にわか雨が降る.

2 ((比喩))（…に）雨のように降る, 多量に来る((down/on, upon ...)).

3 シャワーを浴びる.

cou·gar (kū'gər)

n. Chiefly Western U.S.
See mountain lion.

[French couguar, alteration (influenced by jaguar, jaguar) of Portuguese çuçuarana, from Tupi suasuarana : suasú, deer + rana, like (from its color).]