Political cartoon by Steve Breen of The San Diego Union-Tribune published on on 21 October 2010.
In next week elections, Californians will be voting on a proposition to legalize marijuana use for recreational purposes in the state. According to recent polls, most voters in California favor the proposition.
The cartoonist is critical of the proposition and mocks the arguments being used to support the proposition. He believes that supporters are simply selling snake oil. The term refers to any product or thing that is questionable, exaggerated, or useless but the salesman is trying to make you believe it is good.
NOTE! I apologize, link to image and PDF became inactive over time.
Let’s try a new way to learn vocabulary by just looking at headlines! If you’d like a more readable version of this front page(pdf format), go HERE! For the newspaper’s homepage go to: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
- A to-do list is simply a list of all the things that you need to get done! For the California Legislature, theirs is lengthy meaning they really have a lot to get accomplished. However the end of this legislative session is looming! We use this verb, to loom, to describe something that is unpleasant or difficult which could happen soon. It’s the verb used when the size of something very large seems to threaten something that is small. In this case, it is going to be very difficult for the California Legislature to complete its agenda before the end of the session. Before the current recession, some economist studying the factors stated that an economic crisis was looming if some things didn’t change. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/09/07/MN5319ILVG.DTL
- To ride out something means to get through a difficult or dangerous period or situation without any problems. Oftentimes when a hurricane warning is issued along the Gulf or Atlantic coasts, some people don’t evacuate and choose to try to ride out the storm in their homes. In California, labor union are riding out the downturn. This a situation in which there is less economic and business activity. In this case, the Unions for the moment are surviving the economic downturn in California and are gaining new members. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/09/07/MNUC19I8SL.DTL
- In California, workers are scrambling to fix a span of the workhorse Bay Bridge. If you have to scramble to do something, you have to work very fast and very hard to complete something because you are either having to compete or you don’t have a lot of time. In this case, the Bay Bridge is a workhorse which means it’s probably the most important bridge in San Francisco in terms of how many people use it. Keeping the bridge closed too long for repair is a problem for traffic which is why workers are scrambling to fix the span. Here, span is a synonym for length. We can also use it as a verb. For example, the Golden Gate Bridge spans San Francisco Bay which means it crosses over an area of water. Unfortunately, the city cannot guarantee opening the bridge for the commute Tuesday. This word is used to describe the movement of people going to and from work. This is also a verb. If you take your car or the train to go to work, you commute to work. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/07/BAQU19JGKE.DTL
- The last major front page article speaks about the resignation of President Obama’s green jobs czar (name given to appointed advisors to the President), Van Jones. The headlines states that supporters accuse the White House of caving in. If you cave in to someone, this means you stop opposing something, and finally do whatever it is the other person wanted. Van Jones had made some very controversial comments which many conservatives found unacceptable and so they called for his resignation. On Sunday, Mr. Van Jones tendered that resignation and now supporters of Obama accuse the White House of caving in to conservative criticism. Another idiomatic way of expressing this as found in the article, is to buckle. Supporters might also say that President Obama buckled under the pressure of criticism. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/09/07/MNT319JJCF.DTL
Don’t forget to use your dictionaries to find other uses and meanings of the above vocabulary. If you have any questions concerning the vocabulary, don’t hesitate to click on the comments link!
To learn more about the resignation of President Obama’s green jobs czar, you can watch the following video by www.newsy.com
Cartoon by Chan Lowe of The South Florida Sun Sentinel published on 28 May 2009.
This cartoon concerns the recent California Supreme Court decision upholding Proposition 8 as constitutional which amended the California constitution to read that only a marriage between a man and a woman would be valid and recognized in the state of California. Proposition 8 was a referendum added to the ballot in the general elections last November. A majority of Californians voted in favor of Proposition 8. However, in upholding the ban put in place by Proposition 8, the court also ruled that all previous same-sex marriages prior to the ban would still be recognized.
Righteousness is a noun often used in a religious context to refer to the state of being morally upright and virtuous. It is a term often found in the Bible.
If you nix something, you refuse or say no to it. This word is typically American and is informal. In fact, the origin comes from the German nichts. The opposite of to nix is to ok or to okay something. In the simple past form, we write ok’d. For example, “The bank ok’d my loan for a new car.”
To smite is old word and quite literary to meaning to hit someone or something or have a serious effect on. It is also an irregular verb. The past form is smote such as in the sentence, “She smote him on the back of his head with her umbrella.” The past participle is smitten such as in “They were smitten with terror” or “He was smitten by her charms.”
Dunno is a casual pronunciation of “I don’t know.” This expression has been dated as far back as 1842.
If you say something is tricky we want to say that it is complicated, uncertain and requires great caution.
In a military attack, we often refer to collateral damage and today we tried to avoid this. Collateral damage is the term used to describe unintentional or accidental harm caused to people or property.
