How many potholes have you seen this week?
Britain’s motorists and cyclists are increasingly angry at the financial costs and dangers posed by broken roads. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is coming under growing pressure after he pledged three years ago to fill in 50mn holes: https://on.ft.com/4azunVX
Form an orderly queue. The Royal Shakespeare Company is selling off its unwanted costumes. The costume jumble sale includes 12 uniform coats from the 2008 Hamlet, in which David Tennant took the title role.
go against the grain
If something goes against the grain, you would not usually do it because it would be unusual or morally wrong:
These days it goes against the grain to show respect for authority.
Not using recycled paper goes against the grain
01/19/2008
Shotaro Ikenami (1923-1990), a popular novelist, was in the habit of cutting up and recycling the pages of his discarded manuscripts into scratch paper. His fascination with paper apparently dated back to his childhood in the early Showa Era (1926-1989).
Whenever he got his allowance, he would run to a paper store to buy cheap, coarse paper. He would cut the sheets into quarters, draw pictures on them in ink and crayon, and create his own picture-story show. This was his favorite hobby.
In his essay "Ichinen no Fukei" (year's landscape) published by The Asahi Shimbun, Ikenami recalled how excited and rich he felt when he bought as many as 20 sheets of high-quality, snow-white drawing paper using his New Year's otoshidama gift money. He then went on to lament "the present-day glut of paper and paper products in the average Japanese home."
Japan Post Holdings Co. announced Wednesday that five paper mills producing Japan Post postcards used significantly less recycled paper than they had promised in their contracts.
For instance, the 2008 New Year's postcards supplied by Nippon Paper Industries Co. contained only 1 percent recycled paper, even though the company's contract with Japan Post called for 40 percent. Similar breaches of contract also occurred with copying paper.
Recycled paper loses some of its snowy white color, depending on how much recycled material is used. Paper mills gave the excuse of ensuring high quality in their cards for the lapses.
However, government offices are required by law to mainly buy paper products containing high percentages of recycled paper. The scandal suggests the offending paper makers tried to take advantage of the government's resource-protection measures.
Nationwide, 70 percent of all paper produced is returned to paper companies for recycling and 60 percent is reprocessed. But since only paper mills know how much recycled paper they use in their products, they may be deceiving customers.
In the old days when whiteness of sheets was highly valued, paper makers would have been criticized if they had added recycled paper to their products. But now that consumers are more ecologically minded, skimping on recycled paper invites scandal.
In the last century, the custom of exchanging letters grew along with the mass production of paper. According to "Kami no Rekishi" (history of paper) published by Sogensha Inc., the average number of letters sent by Germans grew from less than two a year in the mid-19th century to 58 at the end of the century.
I am sure some letter writers use recycled paper because they want to send messages in an environment-friendly way. The papermakers' betrayal of people's environmental awareness makes me very angry.
--The Asahi Shimbun, Jan. 18(IHT/Asahi: January 19,2008)
“You will note that many of those ‘h’ expressions refer to disorder and jumblement. Most are of unknown origin.
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POTHOLED ROADS ARE A NATIONAL DISGRACE
“Skimping can cost lives, and not a single one should be lost on the roads for want of a pothole being filled or a surface renewed.”
He added: “Road maintenance must no longer be the poor relation when it comes to funding whether it is at local authority or Government level.”
noun [C] （路面の）穴ぼこ; 【地学】甌穴(おうけつ).
1 a hole in a road surface which results from gradual damage caused by traffic and/or weather:
The car's suspension is so good that when you hit a pothole you hardly notice it.
2 a problem:
The road to economic recovery is full of potholes.
potholed Show phonetics
adjective
describes a road that contains a lot of potholes:
The cottage is situated in the middle of a wood at the end of a narrow potholed lane.
noun [S] INFORMAL
a state of confusion, bad organization or untidiness, or something which is in this state:
After the party, the house was a total/complete shambles.
Our economy is in a shambles.
The way these files are arranged is the biggest shambles I've ever seen.
shambolic Show phonetics
adjective UK INFORMAL
confused and badly organized:
Things are often a bit shambolic at the beginning of the school year.
Anna is far too shambolic to be able to run a business.
shamble Show phonetics
verb [I + adverb or preposition]
to walk slowly and awkwardly, without lifting your feet correctly:
Sick patients shambled along the hospital corridors.
He was a strange, shambling figure.pl.n. (used with a sing. verb)
skimp
verb [I or T] ━━ v. ちびちび与える ((for, on)); 切りつめる, 倹約する ((on)); （仕事を）ぞんざいにやる.
to not spend enough time or money on something, or to not use enough of something to do a job or activity properly:
Many old people skimp on food and heating in order to meet their bills.
When choosing an overseas package tour, do not skimp.
skimpy
adjective
1 DISAPPROVING not large enough:
a skimpy meal
2 Skimpy clothing shows a lot of your body:
a skimpy dress
jumble
noun
1 [S] an untidy and confused mixture of things, feelings or ideas:
He rummaged through the jumble of papers on his desk.
a jumble of thoughts/ideas
2 [U] UK things you no longer want that are sold at a jumble sale
jumble
verb [T]
to mix things together untidily:
Her clothes were all jumbled up/together in the suitcase.
jumblement
n.Confused mixture. [Low]
Whenever he got his allowance, he would run to a paper store to buy cheap, coarse paper. He would cut the sheets into quarters, draw pictures on them in ink and crayon, and create his own picture-story show. This was his favorite hobby.
In his essay "Ichinen no Fukei" (year's landscape) published by The Asahi Shimbun, Ikenami recalled how excited and rich he felt when he bought as many as 20 sheets of high-quality, snow-white drawing paper using his New Year's otoshidama gift money. He then went on to lament "the present-day glut of paper and paper products in the average Japanese home."
Japan Post Holdings Co. announced Wednesday that five paper mills producing Japan Post postcards used significantly less recycled paper than they had promised in their contracts.
For instance, the 2008 New Year's postcards supplied by Nippon Paper Industries Co. contained only 1 percent recycled paper, even though the company's contract with Japan Post called for 40 percent. Similar breaches of contract also occurred with copying paper.
Recycled paper loses some of its snowy white color, depending on how much recycled material is used. Paper mills gave the excuse of ensuring high quality in their cards for the lapses.
However, government offices are required by law to mainly buy paper products containing high percentages of recycled paper. The scandal suggests the offending paper makers tried to take advantage of the government's resource-protection measures.
Nationwide, 70 percent of all paper produced is returned to paper companies for recycling and 60 percent is reprocessed. But since only paper mills know how much recycled paper they use in their products, they may be deceiving customers.
In the old days when whiteness of sheets was highly valued, paper makers would have been criticized if they had added recycled paper to their products. But now that consumers are more ecologically minded, skimping on recycled paper invites scandal.
In the last century, the custom of exchanging letters grew along with the mass production of paper. According to "Kami no Rekishi" (history of paper) published by Sogensha Inc., the average number of letters sent by Germans grew from less than two a year in the mid-19th century to 58 at the end of the century.
I am sure some letter writers use recycled paper because they want to send messages in an environment-friendly way. The papermakers' betrayal of people's environmental awareness makes me very angry.
--The Asahi Shimbun, Jan. 18(IHT/Asahi: January 19,2008)
“You will note that many of those ‘h’ expressions refer to disorder and jumblement. Most are of unknown origin.
he top five reasons why Windows Vista failed
ZDNet - USAThe public reputation of Windows Vista is in shambles, as Microsoft itself tacitly acknowledged in its Mojave ad campaign. IT departments are largely ...
UK News
POTHOLED ROADS ARE A NATIONAL DISGRACE
FALLING APART: Our roads are a shambles
“Skimping can cost lives, and not a single one should be lost on the roads for want of a pothole being filled or a surface renewed.”
pothole (ROADS) Show phonetics
noun [C] （路面の）穴ぼこ; 【地学】甌穴(おうけつ).
1 a hole in a road surface which results from gradual damage caused by traffic and/or weather:
The car's suspension is so good that when you hit a pothole you hardly notice it.
2 a problem:
The road to economic recovery is full of potholes.
potholed Show phonetics
adjective
describes a road that contains a lot of potholes:
The cottage is situated in the middle of a wood at the end of a narrow potholed lane.
shambles Show phonetics
noun [S] INFORMAL
a state of confusion, bad organization or untidiness, or something which is in this state:
After the party, the house was a total/complete shambles.
Our economy is in a shambles.
The way these files are arranged is the biggest shambles I've ever seen.
shambolic Show phonetics
adjective UK INFORMAL
confused and badly organized:
Things are often a bit shambolic at the beginning of the school year.
Anna is far too shambolic to be able to run a business.
shamble Show phonetics
verb [I + adverb or preposition]
to walk slowly and awkwardly, without lifting your feet correctly:
Sick patients shambled along the hospital corridors.
He was a strange, shambling figure.pl.n. (used with a sing. verb)
- A scene or condition of complete disorder or ruin: “The economy was in a shambles” (W. Bruce Lincoln).
- Great clutter or jumble; a total mess: made dinner and left the kitchen a shambles.
- A place or scene of bloodshed or carnage.
- A scene or condition of great devastation.
- A slaughterhouse.
- Archaic. A meat market or butcher shop.
[From Middle English shamel, shambil, place where meat is butchered and sold, from Old English sceamol, table, from Latin scabillum, scamillum, diminutive of scamnum, bench, stool.]
WORD HISTORY A place or situation referred to as a shambles is usually a mess, but it is no longer always the bloody mess it once was. The history of the word begins innocently enough with the Latin word scamnum, “a stool or bench serving as a seat, step, or support for the feet, for example.” The diminutive scamillum, “low stool,” was borrowed by speakers of Old English as sceamol, “stool, bench, table.” Old English sceamol became Middle English shamel, which developed the specific sense in the singular and plural of “a place where meat is butchered and sold.” The Middle English compound shamelhouse meant “slaughterhouse,” a sense that the plural shambles developed (first recorded in 1548) along with the figurative sense “a place or scene of bloodshed” (first recorded in 1593). Our current, more generalized meaning, “a scene or condition of disorder,” is first recorded in 1926.
verb [I or T] ━━ v. ちびちび与える ((for, on)); 切りつめる, 倹約する ((on)); （仕事を）ぞんざいにやる.
to not spend enough time or money on something, or to not use enough of something to do a job or activity properly:
Many old people skimp on food and heating in order to meet their bills.
When choosing an overseas package tour, do not skimp.
skimpy
adjective
1 DISAPPROVING not large enough:
a skimpy meal
2 Skimpy clothing shows a lot of your body:
a skimpy dress
jumble
noun
1 [S] an untidy and confused mixture of things, feelings or ideas:
He rummaged through the jumble of papers on his desk.
a jumble of thoughts/ideas
2 [U] UK things you no longer want that are sold at a jumble sale
jumble
verb [T]
to mix things together untidily:
Her clothes were all jumbled up/together in the suitcase.
jumblement
n.Confused mixture. [Low]
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