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lockdown procedure |
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Words and their Stories - BROADWAY |
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el_flaco (Languages) ?
Hey, sorry for the delay, just been incredibly busy. Anyways, here's the next essay. Enjoy :)One of the most famous streets in the world, Broadway, is also the longest. It extends from the end of Manhattan Island in New York City, north for 240 kilometers. It ends in Albany, the capital of New York State.
Broadway, however, is famous, not for its length, but for a part of it less than one kilometer long. That part, called "The Great White Way" is where the big theaters of New York City are found. During the day, that part of Broadway around Times Square at 42nd Street may seem much like the rest of New York City-busy, noisy, crowded. But at night it is very different.
It is easy to understand why it was named the Great White Way. Huge electric signs on the tall buildings are so bright they make night seem almost as bright as day. The signs flash their messages in many colors. But in earlier times the lights were all white. Thus the name, the "Great White Way."
The word "Broadway," has come to mean more than just die street and more than just an area of theaters. People use it when they speak of the best of American theater art. The sign of real success for an actor is to have his name appear in the lights of a Broadway theater sign.
The theater has given us many other expressions. One of them is "in the limelight." It means to be in the public eye, to be famous. The expression comes from the early days of the theater, before electricity. A bright light was made by burning hydrogen and oxygen gases in a container made of calcium oxide or lime. This strong, bright light was aimed at the actor or actress who was speaking. They performed "in the limelight." The spotlight still shines on actors and actresses today, but it is electric light, not limelight.
You do not have to be an actor or actress to be in the spotlight today. The expression "in the spotlight" may have nothing to do with the theater. You are said to be "in the spotlight" when your name is in the news, or when people are talking about you. You may enjoy having the spotlight on you if you have done something good. But a person may hate being in the spotlight if he is trying to hide something.
Another theater expression that is used in everyday speech _ is to "wing it." You wing it when you are not prepared for what you must do.
An actor wings it when he goes on stage without knowing the lines he must speak. He depends on people standing unseen at the sides of the stage to tell him quietly what he should say. In the theater, the sides of the stage that are hidden from the audience are called the wings.
Thus, the unprepared actor needs help from people in the wings when he is "winging it." Now, anyone who tries to do something he is not prepared for is said to be "winging it." The person who "wings it" hopes that no one will see he was not ready.
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Words & their Stories - SOAP OPERA |
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el_flaco (Languages) ?
With the best wishes going out to all the pretty sex out there...Well, this issue will be a tad out of alignment, given the special occasion, but tomorrow the things will get back to usual...
Since a lot of the fair sex enjoy watching what's known as "soapies" and some might not quite know where this name came from, here's a story. Enjoy=)
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Many experts say soap was first produced by the Phoenicians about twenty-six-hundred years ago. The Phoenicians used it on wounds and to color their hair. The ancient Greeks, however, are believed to have been the first to use soap for cleaning.
By the ninth century, small businesses in Italy, Spain and France produced different kinds of soap. These small businesses did not become a large industry until the last century.
One English expression is closely linked to the soap-making industry in the United States. It is "soap opera."
"Soap operas" are radio and television plays about the problems and emotions in human relationships. They are called soap operas, because the first programs, years ago, were paid for by soap-making companies.
Like musical operas, soap operas are not about real people. And critics charge that they do not present a balanced picture of real life. They note that almost everyone in a soap opera has a serious emotional problem, or is guilty of a crime. And there are several crises in every half hour program.
Yet, soap opera fans do not care what the critics say. They love the programs and watch them every day.
Such loyalty made soap operas very popular in the United States. In fact, a few programs are so popular that they have been produced with the same actors for many years.
Another expression that uses the word soap is "soap box."
There was a time when soap and other products were shipped in wooden boxes. These boxes were small, but strong. You could stand on one to see over the heads in a crowd.. .or to be seen in a crowd. Soap boxes were a simple, easy way to make yourself taller if you wanted to give a public speech.
Such "soap-box" speeches usually were political, and onesided. The speakers shouted their ideas to anyone who walked by. Many talked for hours, refusing to get off their soap boxes.
Today, you don't need a wooden box to make a soap-box speech. Anyone, anywhere, who talks endlessly about a cause is said to be on a soap box.
Another, quieter way to win support or gain influence is to "soft soap" a person. This means to use praise or other kind words to get the person to do what you want.
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Words and their Stories - BLIZZARD |
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el_flaco (Languages) ?
Winters in the northern United States are always cold and snowy. Sometimes, heavy snow is brought by violent storms with high winds and extremely low temperatures. Americans call these storms, "blizzards."Blizzards are usually described as blinding, because no one can see through the blowing snow.
Until about 120 years ago, the word blizzard had nothing to do with snow. It had several other meanings. One was a sharp blow, like hitting a ball with a stick. Another meaning was a gun shot. A third was any sort of statement or event that was the most extreme of its kind.
An especially violent and heavy snowstorm struck the state of Iowa in 1870. The newspaper editor in one small town called the terrible storm a "blizzard" because it was the worst winter storm in a long time. This use of the word spread across the country in the next few years. Soon, any especially bad winter storm was called a blizzard.
Although no one likes a blizzard, many people love snow. It changes the appearance of everything around us. When snow is falling, the world seems somehow soft, peaceful and quiet. Snow, especially in large amounts, covers everything.
But too much snow is a real problem. Heavy, deep snow is difficult to move. Clearing snow from roads and sidewalks is hard work. Someone who is "snowed under" has a lot of snow to clear. That expression, "snowed under" also has another meaning. Anyone who has too much work to do is "snowed under." You might explain to a friend that you can not see her tonight because you are "snowed under" with work.
It also is possible to snow someone under with words. The idea is to change someone's mind, by making a great many pleasant but false statements or claims. That is a "snow job." A boy may use a "snow job," for example, to try to get a girl to go out with him. The pretty words of his snow job are like the snow flakes that cover the real world around us. However, snow jobs, unlike blizzards, are easily seen through.
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Words and their Stories - BLITZ |
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el_flaco (Languages) ?
At the beginning of World War two, the powerful German army of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler marched with great speed and skill through western Europe. The Germans captured Poland, Belgium, France and other countries in a very short time.Hitler described his aggressive plan with the German word "blitzkrieg." Blitzkrieg means war that is fought as quickly as lightning strikes. Military experts around the world soon began to use the word blitzkrieg to describe any fast-moving, powerful attack by strong forces.
Hitler's blitzkrieg attack on western Europe succeeded for a while. But the Nazi leader was not able to defeat Britain.
As time passed, Hitler decided to bomb London and other British cities to break the spirit of the British people, and force them to surrender. Soon, thousands of kilograms of German bombs were falling on British cities every day. The British people called the attack another blitzkrieg, or "The Blitz."
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill described one series of raids in this way: "The new bombing began with the blitz of the city of Coventry on the night of November fourteenth." Churchill wrote in his history of the war, "By the time the sun came up, nearly five-hundred German aircraft had dropped six-hundred tons of high explosives and thousands of fire bombs."
Use of the word blitz did not end when the Allied troops finally marched into Berlin in 1945 and Germany surrendered. Instead the word became even more popular. People began to use the word blitz to describe anykind of strong action, campaign or movement.
Political leaders use the word blitz. A candidate for president of the United States may plan a campaign in which he visits five different cities every day for two weeks. One day he is in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington. The next day he campaigns in more cities- Jacksonville, Orlando, New Orleans, Houston and Dallas.
Newspaper reporters who travel with candidates are likely to call this kind of campaigning a political blitz.
The expression is also used in sports. A team on the defense in American football may use a blitz, an aggressive play to stop the other team from passing the football.
A company may launch an advertising blitz to introduce a new product. This means the company will announce its new product on many radio and television stations, and in many different newspapers. Its advertising campaign will try to reach as many people as possible to make them want to buy the product.
The blitzkrieg did not win the war for Adolph Hitler. But it did win a lasting place in the English language as a useful and descriptive word.
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Words & their Stories - BLACK AND WHITE |
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el_flaco (Languages) ?
Most of the time black and white appear as opposites. White means light and purity. Black is darkness and evil. But not always. Sometimes the words are used differently.White hats and black hats represent the traditional meaning of the words. The hats are symbols of the "good guys" and the "bad guys" in American western movies.
White hats and black hats had a real purpose in the early days of motion pictures. The early movies were made with no sound. So, the movie directors put a white hat on the hero and a black hat on his opponent, the bad guy in the story. That way even a small child knew immediately who was the hero.
The tradition of white hats and black hats is no longer a part of movie making. But you still hear the expression when people talk about good guys and bad guys.
A "black sheep" is a person who does things that are not accepted, that violate tradition. A black sheep is rejected because he brings shame to his group. A family may have a member who is thought of as a black sheep, a person who is not welcome at family gatherings.
Black is also used in some expressions that describe good things. Being "in the black," for example, is a good situation for anyone. It is a business expression that means a company is earning money. A store mat makes a profit is "in the black." The expression comes from the color of ink that is used in the books that record a company's profits or losses. Profits are written in black ink. Losses are written in red. So, when someone says his business is "in the red," he means it is losing money.
White usually means something good. A "white-collar" job, for example, is the kind of job many people seek. It is a job where you work at a desk, using your brain instead of your muscles. Usually white-collar jobs pay more than "blue-collar" jobs. Those are jobs where you use your muscles.
Sometimes white is used in an expression that is not good. Whitewash is such an expression. At first, whitewash meant to paint over something with a white paint to make it look better. But now "whitewash" has a different meaning: to hide or cover up mistakes or failures.
A newspaper might report, for example, that the investigation of a train accident is a whitewash, because investigators did not really try to discover who was responsible.
Some expressions use black and white together. Someone may say to you that your proposal sounds all right, but he wants to see it in black and white. He wants to see your proposal in writing-black ink on white paper.
Some people are said to see things only in black and white. In this expression, black and white represent opposite extremes, with no middle ground between them. Most issues in the world are not so simple as black and white. One side of an issue is not all white-right or good-and the other side is not all black-wrong or evil. In the real world there are many grey areas where black and white mix to represent the true situation.
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Words and their Stories - BIGWIG |
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el_flaco (Languages) ?
Some expressions describe people who are important, or at least who think they are.One such expression is bigwig. In the 17th century, important men in Europe began to wear hair pieces, called wigs. As years passed, wigs began to get bigger. The size of a man's wig depended on how important he was. The more important he was, or thought he was, the bigger the wig he wore. Some wigs were so large that they covered a man's shoulders or back.
Today the expression "bigwig" is used to make fun of a person who feels important. People never tell someone he is a bigwig. The only use the expression behind his back.
"Big wheel" is another way to describe an important person. A big wheel may be head of a company, a political leader, a famous doctor. They are big wheels because they are powerful. What they do affects many persons. Big wheels give the orders. Other people obey them. As in many machines, a big wheel makes the little wheels turn.
"Big wheel" became a popular expression after World War Two. It probably comes from an expression used for many years by people who fix the mechanical parts of cars and trucks. They said a person "rolled a big wheel" if he was important and had influence.
The top of something is the highest part. So it is not surprising that top is part of another expression that describes an important person.
The expression is "top banana." A "top banana" is the leading person in a comedy show. The best comedian is called the top banana, the next is second banana and so on down. Why a banana? A comedy act in earlier days often included a part where one of the comedians would hit the others over the head with a soft object shaped liked a banana fruit.
"Top banana" still is used mainly in show business. But the expression also can be used to describe the top person in any field.
A "kingpin" is another word for an important person. The expression comes from the game of bowling. The kingpin is the number one pin. If hit correctly with the bowling ball, the kingpin will make all the other nine pins fall. And that is the object of the game.
So, the most important person in a project or business is the "kingpin." If the kingpin is removed, the business or project will likely fail.
Kingpin is often used to describe an important criminal, or the leader of a criminal gang. A newspaper may report, for example, that police have arrested the suspected kingpin of a car-stealing operation.
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Words and their Stories - BESIDE ONESELF |
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el_flaco (Languages) ?
Many expressions may be used to describe someone who is excited.One such expression is to be "beside yourself." You can be beside yourself with anger or beside yourself with happiness, although usually not both at the same time. If you are beside yourself, you are in an extremely emotional condition. You are filled with excitement.
The dictionary tells us that "beside" means next to, or at the side of. So the expression "beside oneself" describes something that really is not possible. You cannot be next to yourself. Some language experts, however, think the expression probably comes from an old belief that through magic, you could indeed be next to yourself. Spirits were believed to have the magic power to do anything. So it was possible to have two of the same person appear, especially if that person was excited.
Today, you might hear a husband say, "When my wife told me we were going to have a baby, I was beside myself with joy." Or someone might tell you he was beside himself with anger because he had just lost his job.
When you are full of joy or are extremely excited about something you may do something else that is strange. You may "flip your lid." A lid is the cover that prevents something from escaping from a container. A lid on a cooking pot, for example, keeps the heat from escaping. To flip something is to turn it over. So, when you "flip your lid," you become so excited that your self-control escapes.
You can "flip your lid" over something you like very much. A young man, for example, might flip his lid over a pretty, young woman. Or you can "flip your lid" if something makes you very angry. If someone hit your new car, it might make you flip your lid.
In recent years, the word "flip" itself has come to mean the same thing as flip your lid. It is common to hear a girl say she "flipped" over a new boyfriend.
An expression that means something quite similar is to "lose your head." The head is believed to be connected to reason and careful thought. Thus to "lose one's head" is to act without thinking, to be out of control.
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Words and their Stories - BEHIND THE EIGHT-BALL |
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el_flaco (Languages) ?
When someone is "behind the eight-ball" he is in a difficult, if not impossible situation.The expression comes from the game of Kelly pool. Pool or pocket billiards, is a table game played with fifteen numbered balls and a cue ball. Players strike the cue ball with the end of a cue, or stick, sending it into one or more of the numbered balls. The idea is knock each of the numbered balls into one of the six pockets around the edge of the pool table.
In one kind of pool game called eight-ball, players try to put the numbered balls into the pockets, with the eight-ball the last to go in. A player loses if he sinks the eight-ball before all the other balls are in the pockets. A player can put his opponent in poor position by leaving the cue ball behind the eight ball. The eight ball blocks his opponent from a shot at any of the other balls.
So, if you are behind the eight-ball, your position is bad. There is almost no way out of the situation. You are in trouble.
A New York newspaper, in a report on a new book, used the expression this way: "An attempt to describe what makes the drawings funny lands you behind the eight-ball." In other words, trying to describe why the drawings are funny may be impossible and you may seem foolish to try.
Someone who is "behind the eight-ball" is usually "in a pickle," or "a pretty pickle." "In a pickle" is another expression that means you are in a difficult or unpleasant situation.
Some experts say this expression comes from an old Dutch saying, "sitting in pickle juice." Sitting in pickle juice indeed would be unpleasant. Pickling was a very common way to keep food from spoiling before days of ice boxes or electric refrigerators. When food is pickled, it is kept in a pickle juice made of salt, vinegar and spices.
There is still another expression in English that means you are in trouble. You are in a "fine kettle of fish." This expression was first used 200 years ago by British writers. One story says that it comes from an early British custom of cooking fish in huge pots or kettles. The cooked fish were served at parties along the river. As the story goes, a cook did something wrong, producing a kettle of fish that no one could eat. That cook was surely in trouble for his "fine kettle of fish."
We still use all these expressions today. In fact, I will be in a "fine kettle of fish," or "in a pretty pickle," and probably "behind the eight-ball" if I don't end this story now.
(c) VoA
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Words and their Stories - Baloney |
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el_flaco (Languages) ?
Baloney is a kind of sausage that many Americans eat often, usually in a sandwich. The word also has another meaning in English that is very different. It is used to describe something, usually something someone says, that is false or wrong or foolish.Baloney sausage comes from the name of the Italian city, Bologna. The city is famous for its sausage, a mixture of smoked, spiced meat from cows and pigs. But Bologna sausage does not taste the same as beef or pork alone.
Some language experts think this different taste is responsible for the birth of the expression "baloney." Baloney is an idea or statement that is nothing like the truth, in the same way that bologna sausage tastes nothing like the meat that is used to make it.
Baloney is a word often used by politicians to describe the ideas of their opponents. A few years ago, during a campaign for the Democratic Presidential nomination, Senator Gary Hart described himself as a leader of the future. He called his opponent, former Vice President Walter Mondale, a candidate of the past. "Baloney," answered Mr. Mondale.
The expression has been used for years. Fifty years ago, a former Governor of New York state, Alfred Smith, criticized some claims by President Franklin Roosevelt about the successes of the Roosevelt administration. Mr. Smith said, "No matter how thin you slice it, it is still baloney."
A similar word has almost the same meaning as baloney. It even sounds almost the same. The word is blarney. It began in Ireland about 1600. The lord of Blarney castle, near Cork, agreed to surrender the castle to British troops. But he kept making excuses for postponing the surrender. And he made them sound like very good excuses. Finally Queen Elizabeth said, of the latest of his excuses, "This is just more of the same blarney."
The Irish castle now is famous for its Blarney stone. Kissing the stone is thought to give a person special powers of speech. One who has kissed the Blarney stone, so the story goes, can speak words of praise so smoothly and sweetly that you believe them, even when you know they are false.
A former Roman Catholic bishop of New York City, Fulton Sheen, once explained, "Baloney is praise so thick it cannot be true, and blarney is praise so thin we like it."
Another expression is "pulling the wool over someone's eyes." It means to make someone believe something that is not true. The expression goes back to the days when men wore false hair or wigs similar to those worn by judges today in British courts. The word wool was a popular joking word for hair. If you pulled a man's wig over his eyes, he could not see what was happening. Today, when you "pull the wool over someone's eyes," he cannot see the truth.
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Words and their Stories - ACE IN THE HOLE |
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el_flaco (Languages) ?
It is surprising how many expressions that people use every day came from the card game poker.For example, you hear the expression "ace in the hole" used by many who would never think of going near a poker table. An ace in the hole is any argument, plan or thing kept hidden until needed, especially when it can turn failure into success.
In poker and most card games, the ace is the highest and most valuable card. It is often a winning card. In one kind of poker game, the first card to each player is dealt face down. A player does not show this card to the other players. The other cards are dealt face up with the players betting money each time they receive another card. No one knows until the end of the game whose hidden card is the winner. Often, the "ace in the hole" wins the game.
Smart card players, especially those who play for large amounts of money, closely watch the person who deals the cards. They are watching to make sure he is dealing honestly, that he is not dealing off the bottom of the stack of cards. A dealer who is doing that has "stacked the deck." He has fixed the cards so that he will get higher cards and you will lose.
The expression, "dealing off the bottom," now means cheating in business, as well as in cards. And when someone tells you that "the cards are stacked" against you, he is saying you do not have a chance to succeed.
In a poker game you do not want to let your opponents know if your cards are good or bad. So having a "poker face" is important. A poker face never shows any emotion, never expresses either good or bad feelings. No one can learn, by looking at your face, if your cards are good or bad. People now use "poker face" in everyday speech to describe someone who shows no emotion.
Someone who has a "poker face" usually is good at "bluffing." Bluffing is trying to trick a person into believing something about you that is not true. In poker, you bluff when you bet heavily on a poor hand. The idea is to make the other players believe you have strong cards and are sure to win. If they believe you, they are likely to drop out of the game, leaving to you the money they have bet.
You can do a better job of bluffing if you "hold your cards close to your vest." You hold your cards close to you so no one else can see what you have. In every day speech, holding your cards close to your vest means not letting others know what you are doing or thinking. You are keeping your plans secret.
(c) Voice of America
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Words and their Stories (A-Okay) |
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el_flaco (Languages) ?
? ?, Voice of America, ? ? ???A-Okay.
No one really knows when many of our expressions became popular. But others can be easily dated. One such expression is A-Okay. It means the situation is fine; there is no cause for worry.
A-Okay is a space-age expression. It was used in 1961 during the flight of an American astronaut. John Powers, a spokesman for NASA, the national space agency, used "A-Okay" to tell the world that everything on the space flight was operating perfectly.
Some experts say the expression did not begin with the space age. One story is that it was first used during the early days of the telephone, to tell an operator that his message had been received. The sound of the O in Okay often was lost in the noise on the telephone line. So the sharper sounding "A" was added to the expression, making a more easily understood "A-Okay."
A-Okay is one of several expressions that may have come into the language earlier but became popular only when they were used in the space progam. These expressions quickly became part of everyday speech. This happened because most people had television, and could see and hear all the major events of a space flight. People spent hours watching special TV reports of every space flight.
They could hear the astronauts talk with NASA scientists and engineers. In the first days of space flight, the astronauts seemed to be speaking a new language. But soon, the public accepted and began to use many expressions of this space language.
One such expression is "all systems go." It means everything is ready, let us begin. NASA uses it to mean that all the systems on a spacecraft have been examined and are working correctly. All systems go means the decision has been made to continue with the launch of the spacecraft. It is also used outside the space program to tell someone that you are ready to start a job or activity.
Countdown became a popular word of the space age.
Space scientists would count down the seconds until launch. They counted backwards from 10 seconds, 9,8,7,6,5,4,3, 2, 1 and liftoff. Some language experts say the American people first heard countdowns in the late 1940's during broadcasts of atomic bomb tests in Nevada and on some islands in the Pacific. But countdown did not become a common expression until the space flights of the 1960's.
Another space expression that has become common in recent years is "burnout." It meant that a launch rocket had used all its fuel. Space ships were launched by more than one rocket. The first rocket would lift the ship high above the earth. Then it would "burn out" and a second rocket would fire to carry the vehicle into earth orbit.
Soon, people began to use burnout to describe what happens to a person who works too hard under too much stress for too long. Such a "burned out" person is like a rocket with no more fuel. He has no energy or desire to continue.
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