Political cartoon by Rick McKee of The Augusta Chronicle in Augusta, Georgia published on 13 May 2011.
to do someone a favor (Note: in British English it is spelled ‘favour’) – to do something to help someone else
to hang on to something – to keep something because you think you might need it sometime in the future
Political cartoon by Rick McKee of The Augusta Chronicle in Augusta, Georgia published on 29 April 2011.
a gal - a girl, or a woman (English version of the French ‘une nana’)
a guy = a boy, or a man (English version of the French ‘un mec’)
barely (adv.) - used for emphasizing how small an amount is
to be on welfare – to receive money, care and/or help from the state (for people in need or unemployed)
a throng – a large crowd of peoplea blanket – a thick layer of something, for example snow, fog or clouds that completely covers an area
Synonym: to show upto catch a glimpse – to see something or someone for a moment only
to treat oneself/someone to something – to do something or to give something special to yourself or someoneto go off without a hitch – to happen successfully without any problems
a treat – something special you do or buy for yourself or someone else
Synonym: with flying colours (UK)/colors (US)
If you’ve ever had a book that was so good and so interesting that you just couldn’t put it down, we call this book a page turner.
The idiom has been updated for electronic book devices!! So, now if you are reading a very interesting ebook, we call this a page clicker!
This is a play on the word, “intoxication,” which is the state of being intoxicated or drunk! Intoxication is also the high excitement of mind due to extreme happiness or enthusiasm. Hopefully, you all find your spouses or partners intoxicating!!
VOCABULARY:
to throw one’s hat into the ring: to enter a political race as a candidate; to announce that you intend to compete for something (This expression comes from the early 19th century when boxing was very popular. If anyone wished to challenge a boxer, he would simply throw his hat into the boxing ring.)
to line up: to organize or prepare things for an event or a series of events
to wind up: to end something (Here, Barbour would finish his fly-around the country in Jackson, Mississippi.)
a bash: a party or a celebration
a backer: a supporter (the verb is ‘to back’)
to pull the plug: to stop an activity (It is used especially when money is no longer being provided to allow an activity to continue. A plug is what is connected to the electrical socket in the wall to make our appliances work. If you remove it from the wall, electricity is no longer supplied and the appliance stops working.)
a crucible: an environment that is very dangerous, difficult or exciting
Political cartoon by Jimmy Margulies of The Record in New Jersey and published on 27 December 2010.
This political cartoon is a spoof (une parodie) on an anti-drug TV commercial from the 1980s which you’ll find below.
A nest egg is a special sum or amount of money that has been saved or invested for a specific future use such as retirement. This term comes from the practice of putting a real or an artificial egg into the nest of a chicken in order to encourage it to lay (pondre) more eggs.
The connection to saving money is a bit uncertain but possibly it’s because the nest egg wasn’t removed from the nest until the chicken had laid eggs.
Here’s another TV commercial I saw airing on American television while I’m home this Christmas.
Unlike the French, Americans like to talk about money so it’s no surprise we have a lot of slang and idiomatic terms for it!
http://www.esurance.com/Welcome/home/home/ErinsWorld.aspx
This funny TV commercial is currently on American television at the moment. Most of the expressions the man is using are common!! Watch and see if you understand. The video uses what is known as Reduplicated or Ricochet Words which are word combinations and sounds designed to intensify their force. The transcript with explanations follows the video.
http://www.progressive.com/commercials/language.aspx
My family and I were watching Disney’s Christmas Carol from last year that was recently released on DVD. In the movie, Ebenezer Scrooge says that Christmas is balderdash. My father made a comment wondering what the origin of that word was. So, I set out last night to look it up and was inspired by the various ways we say “nonsense” in English.
We have several ways of expressing the idea that something, such as talk or writing, is a bunch of nonsense. Here are a few:
Political cartoon by Cameron “Cam” Cardow of The Ottowa Citizen in Canada and published on 01 December 2010.
If you are down on your luck, you are in a long period of difficulty finding work and earning money. Unfortunately due to the current economic situation, a lot of people are down on their luck.
If you stab someone or something, you push a sharp object such as a knife into that person or thing. Thankfully, in the case of this Marine who was stabbed in the back, his wound wasn’t severe. The Marine was trying to stop a shoplifter, who had tried to shoplift a laptop computer. Shoplifting is the act of stealing from a shop. This comes from the verb ‘to lift,’ which also means to steal.
Other interesting expressions with ‘stab’:
Click on the above image to access the article’s main page.
Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving Day in the United States, traditionally the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. On this day many U.S. retailers open very early, often at 5 a.m., and offer promotional sales to kick off the shopping season. Because Thanksgiving always falls on the fourth Thursday in November in the United States, the day after occurs between the 23rd and the 29th of November.
The day's name originated in Philadelphia, where it originally was used to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic which would occur on the day after Thanksgiving. Use of the term began by 1966 and began to see broader use outside Philadelphia around 1975. Later an alternative explanation began to be offered: that "Black Friday" indicates the period during which retailers are turning a profit, or "in the black." (Wikipedia)
Political cartoon by Dave Granlund of Massachusetts and published on 25 November 2010.
If you are black and blue, you are covered in bruises due to injury from being hit, falling, etc…
Political cartoon by Joe Heller of The Green Bay Press-Gazette in Wisconsin and published on 25 November 2010.
The Christmas shopping season has officially begun and millions of Americans find themselves fighting the throngs of people wanting to get those great after Thanksgiving sales. The principal shopper in the cartoon just happens to get the last item on sale but other shoppers also want it and are fighting him for it! He states that just the other day he was worried about strangers touching his junk at the airport. Now they have his hands on him everywhere!!
You’ve probably seen the word ‘junk’ in expressions such as junk food or junk mail however this word has another pop culture meaning that has become more popularized due to current security measures at airports. Junk is an American slang term for your genital organs that seems to have gotten its start in pop songs though I’m unsure of its origins.** It refers more specifically to male genitals but has crossed over to indicate the female’s as well. Use this term with great caution because it may be considered quite vulgar by some speakers!
“Don’t touch my junk” was made popular in the press by a traveller at the airport who didn’t want the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) agent touching his genital area during a pat-down. This is the act of passing the hands over the clothed body of someone else in order to detect concealed contraband such as weapons, drugs, etc.. These pat-downs have become very invasive with agents actually touching the genitals of passengers, the breasts of women, placing hands in underwear and in some cases, strip searching travellers including small children! Justifiably, many Americans are very angry with these new measures and view them as actions of a police state. This provoked one airline passenger to warn the TSA agent, “Don’t touch my junk!”
**If any of my blog followers know the origins of the term ‘junk’ in referring to the sexual genitals, please share them by leaving a comment!!
An avid fan is someone who is really enthusiastic about a sports team and he (or she) watches that team regularly. I really love to read and so I am an avid reader. The adjective ‘avid’ is used to describe your enthusiasm for any activity which you like to do a lot.
If you are an avid fan of a sports team such as Olympique de Marseille, you root for that team when you watch a match. When you root for something or someone, you support them. When our students take the DCL exam, we root for them!
In the cartoon, the lady doesn’t quite understand the level of avid support the men have for the Broncos because they are rooting for the team in the Bronco uniform no matter who the players are. So, she states that they are rooting for the laundry! Your laundry is your dirty clothes that need to be washed or those clean clothes that have been already washed.
The headline of this article has some great idiomatic expressions that come from fishing terminology. Let’s first look at “What a catch!” Of course the meaning is clear because when you go fishing, you want to catch fish. If you catch or someone else catches a nice, big fish you would say, “What a catch!” You can also use this expression to describe someone’s partner. If a friend of yours found a really nice boyfriend, girlfriend, husband or wife you would 
When you fish, you hope to catch a fish on your hook. However, the headline states that some young New Yorkers are also hooked. If you are hooked on something, you are really interested or attracted to it and you want to do it as much as possible. These guys are hooked on fishing. This expression can also be used to describe an addiction that you can’t stop such as being hooked on drugs.
Angling is the sport of catching fish. When you fish, you hope to catch a fish on the line when it bites your hook. Of course, while reeling in your fish, you could lose it! For these New York fisherman, they are putting their angling skills on the line. If you put or lay something on the line, you put something at risk. The young New Yorkers are risking their reputations as good fisherman. When our soldiers go on mission into a combat area, they put their lives on the line for us.
To read the article, click on the above image.
If you hang out somewhere, it means that you just spend time in a particular place not doing anything really special.
“Come to think of it” is an informal expression that means “When I consider the matter” of “On reflection.” Take at look at this example:
“Come to think of it, that road back there was the one we were supposed to take.”
If you pitch or throw a fit, you get very angry and you express that anger!
Mrs. Potato Head doesn’t like the fact that Mr. Potato Head spends all his day as a couch potato eating munchies. Those are the small little snacks we like to eat such as chips (crisps in British English). If you want to say you are hungry or are getting hungry, you can say, “I have the munchies” or “I’m getting the munchies.”
What is a couch potato? To find out, follow this link to my very first blog post where I explain the expression along with a few other related one:
http://the-english-spot.blogspot.com/2008/09/slang-and-idioms-01-couch-potato-and.html
Political cartoon by Joe Heller of the The Green Bay Press-Gazette in Wisconsin and published on 12 November 2010.
This cartoon from the political left is mocking the release of former President George W. Bush’s book Decision Points. It alludes to the famous incident where an Iraqi journalist threw his shoe at the President which is a major insult in the Middle East. The cartoonist plays on the idiomatic expression ‘ to be a shoo-in.’
If you are a shoo-in, it means that you are sure and certain to win or be successful at something. It’s an easy victory. It is derived from the verb ‘to shoo’ which means to drive a person or an animal in a certain direction. One way of telling someone to go away is to simply say “Shoo!” while waving your hand in the direction you want them to leave.
It is a common mistake by a lot of English speakers to misspell the idiomatic expression as in the cartoon, though here the cartoonist purposely is playing with the expression.
Political cartoon by Jerry Holbert of The Boston Herald in Massachusetts and published on 12 November 2010.
This cartoon is also by a cartoonist from the political left which criticizes the recommended proposals a congressional committee made to help reduce the US deficit. For the taxpayer, it’s going to cost him an arm and eventually a leg. To cost an arm and a leg is the English equivalent of the French expression ‘coûter les yeux de la tête’ or ‘coûter la peau des fesses.’
Political cartoon by Chuck Asay of The Colorado Springs Gazette published on 06 November 2010.
In this conservative leaning political cartoon, the cartoonist is critical of the government taking control of the student loan business. It is full of good vocabulary.
You see a caricature of Obama leading a classroom discussing how to make college tuition more affordable. First, what is tuition? This is the money you pay to take a class at a college, university or private school.
The caricature of Obama states that it is skyrocketing and need to be made more affordable. This means that cost of going to school has increased very quickly and become very expensive and so something must be done to lower the price so more people can pay for it. Look at this example of the vocabulary in use: Currently the price of gold is skyrocketing and is become less affordable for those who want to buy gold.
In response to how to make tuition more affordable, one of the students suggests that colleges should compete for students in a free market. He believes there should be more competition. This means that a university should try to attract more students by offering better educational services at lower prices than another university.
Mr. Marx, an illusion of course to Karl Marx, has another idea. He believes that the government (he uses the common term the Feds to refer to people working for the US government) should take over the student loan business because a government is too big to fail (tell that to the Soviet Union!). A loan is the money you request to borrow from a bank for which you pay back over time at interest. If something fails, it is unsuccessful and doesn’t work.
At the end of the cartoon, we see the caricature of Obama asking the class who they think is going to flunk his class. In the case of this class, the first student is going to flunk and Mr. Marx is going to pass. If you flunk a class, you fail the class and do not get a good mark or grade. If you succeed and get the necessary grade or mark to move up to the next class or level, you pass it. Congratulations!
