| Now, I only play at live tournaments or at private games in Vegas. There’s no danger; no seedy backrooms, no guns, no fire escapes. But the stakes are higher in Vegas than in Europe, and that’s why I still get the buzz. And because of my tough life, I’ve realised that no matter what happens, nobody can break me inside. A good player can’t have nerves. I lost mine a long time ago. | 现在我只打现场直播的比赛和拉斯维加斯的私人牌局。没有危险，没有肮脏的暗室，不用 枪，不用走防火梯。不过拉斯维加斯的赌注比欧洲高，所以我还是会接到电话。因为一生中经历了很多艰辛，我意识到，无论发生什么，谁都不能击垮我的内心。好 牌手不能鲁莽，我很久以前就不再鲁莽了。 |
| ‘Devilfish: The Life & Times of a Poker Legend’, by Dave Ulliott, will be published by Viking on September 9 | 《鬼鱼：扑克传奇的生涯和时代》(Devilfish: The Life & Times of a Poker Legend)，戴夫·尤里奥特(Dave Ulliott)著，维京出版社(Viking)9月9日出版 |
| 译者/王柯伦 |
Drivers stuck in traffic in Mexico City have found themselves being buzzed lately by a fleet of drones carrying ads for UberPOOL.
2009.6.15
Le buzz over new French dictionary
France has a rich tradition of dictionaries and encyclopedias and the publishers are not giving up in the face of the competition from the internet. Tomorrow sees the publication of the latest Petit Larousse, a dictionary-reference book which has been part of French family life since Pierre Larousse invented it in 1905.
The Petit Larousse is serious and known for its fine illustrations but it is not set in stone like the dictionary of the august Académie Française, the official guardian of the language. It keeps pace with trends and mirrors the prevailing culture. So it's always interesting to note the new expressions and the people whom it adds to its new editions. The arrivals this year include Audrey Tautou, Barack Obama and George Clooney.
The inclusion of show-biz personalities is part of "la pipolisation" of French life. That word, which means celebrity culture and originated in the 1990s from the US People magazine, is one of 150 new terms in the Larousse dictionary section. There are a few from Belgium, Quebec and other parts, and some, like barré (crazy, eccentric) are current French slang but many, inevitably, have been adopted from American
They include buzz, burn-out, geek, fantasy (in the sense of Tolkien-style, nordic mythology entertainment), peer-to-peer, caster (meaning to cast in the theatre sense), blacklister (to blacklist), clubbeur/clubbeuse and toxique, in the sense of waste or loans. The new toxique is one of many examples of English usage being overlaid on old French words. A typical classic example is réaliser, which took on the English sense of to realize as well as its French meaning of to carry out. (The shift took place in the 1920s, according learned commentators below)
This may drop out of the language as fashion passes. Larousse is not sanctifying language like the Académie, whose dictionary is a safe half century or so behind the times. It just tries to reflect current use.
You can understand why French embraces American jargon when it encapsulates a sense for which nothing native has been invented. English has done that with dozens of French words (chic, chagrin, nuance, frisson...) over the past couple of centuries. Le buzz sounds ugly in French but it is a single syllable which French takes a mouthful to render as "rumeur, retentissement médiatique, notamment autour de ce qui est perçu comme étant à la pointe de la mode" as Larousse puts it.
But a lot of the English borrowing is superfluous or silly. Gilles Vigneault, a venerable Quebec singer-poet, was making the point on Europe1 radio this morning. Why say burn-out when there is a perfectly good French word for it, épuisement (exhaustion), he said. My list of recent silly franglais would include relooker (to make over), le fooding (a restaurant fashion involving modern cuisine and trendy décor) and sur-booké (booked out). All have been registered by Larousse.
To get back to less topical matters, this edition marks the 120th anniversary of La Semeuse (the sower), the illustration of a woman blowing dandelion petals in the wind, which Larousse adopted for his publishing house in 1890 [Dandelion, an English borrowing from the French dent-de-lion, or lion's tooth]. And here is one of the famous nature illustrations: from le Petit Larousse.
Tiananmen Now Seems Distant to China’s Students
BEIJING — On April 30, the cellphones of the 32,630 students at Peking University, a genteel institution widely regarded as one of China’s top universities, buzzed with a text message from the school administration. It warned students to “pay attention to your speech and behavior” on Youth Day(中國青年節五月四日 ) because of a “particularly complex” situation.
nerves
n Definition: extreme anxiety
Antonyms: calm, coolness
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buzz
n.
- A vibrating, humming, or droning sound.
- A low murmur: a buzz of talk.
- A telephone call: Give me a buzz at nine.
- Slang.
- A state of pleasant intoxication, as from alcohol.
- A state of stimulation or overstimulation, as from caffeine.
- Slang.
- Excited interest or attention: "The biggest buzz surrounds the simplest antioxidants: vitamins" (Carol Turkington).
- Rumor; gossip: the latest buzz from Hollywood.
- A buzzcut.
In 1997, I flew to Las Vegas for the first time, and when I went back later that year I won a World Series of Poker bracelet and $180,310. I got my “Devilfish” nickname in the same year – a poker player from Birmingham came up with it. He was losing and called me “Devilfish”, after a fugu, the Japanese fish that is deadly poisonous when it isn’t properly prepared. At a poker tournament in Vegas, a friend called me Devilfish while cheering me on. I won, and the next day it was in the newspaper.
1997年，我第一次坐飞机去拉斯维加斯(Las Vegas)，那年晚些时候回来的时候，我已经赢得了世界扑克大赛(World Series of Poker)的冠军手环和180,310美元奖金。同一年，我得到了“鬼鱼”(Devilfish)的绰号，是伯明翰的一个扑克牌手给我取的。他输了牌， 然后把我叫做“鬼鱼”，也就是河豚——日本的这种鱼如果烹制不当可能会毒死人。在拉斯维加斯的一次扑克比赛上，一个朋友为我加油时喊我“鬼鱼”。后来我赢 了，第二天这个绰号就上了报纸。
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The noun devilfish has 3 meanings:
Meaning #1: medium-sized grayish-black whale of the north Pacific
Synonyms: gray whale, Eschrichtius gibbosus, Eschrichtius robustus
Meaning #2: bottom-living cephalopod having a soft oval body with eight long tentacles
Synonym: octopus
Meaning #3: extremely large pelagic tropical ray that feeds on plankton and small fishes; usually harmless but its size make it dangerous if harpooned
Synonyms: manta, manta ray
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