Vocabulary In the News : Yahoo News (Online Article from 26 November 2010)

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’:

• Unpleasant feelings or emotions can stab you if you feel them very strongly. When my grandmother passed away, sadness stabbed my heart. If someone’s words stab you, you feel a strong sense of sadness or fear.
• a stabbing – In the article, the Marine was a victim of a stabbing. This is the name for this type of attack.
• a stabbing pain – This is very intense and sharp pain such as would be felt in a heart attack or severe injury.
• to stab someone in the back – If someone trusts you and that person thinks you are loyal to them, but you do something bad that is disloyal and hurtful, you stab them in the back.
• a stab in the dark – If you make a guess at a question or problem that is not based on any knowledge and which will probably be a wrong answer, we call this a stab in the dark. Sometimes while playing trivia games and I don’t know the answer, I’ll make a stab in the dark.

Click on the above image to access the article’s main page.

Cartoon : It’s Black (and Blue) Friday & “Don’t Touch My Junk”

 

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)

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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…

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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!!