Tag Archives: supernatural

27 Jun

fair game

Who taught: Supernatural

supernatural TV show

About a month ago, Jessie and I went through a few seasons of a TV show, Supernatural. I would not strongly recommend it. It is fun to watch but you get to dream about those demons in the show. And, I did not like it. So, we stopped watching the show.

Anyway, basically, the show is about two brothers fighting against demons to save the world. Before I came to the U.S., I thought the only demon in the U.S. is Zombies. Well, if you watch, there are a lot more. Another advantage (?) of watching the show is that you get to hear a whole lot of different English words you would never hear in your daily life.

I would not share those with you, my friends. But, there was one phrase I learned that I think it is very useful for you.

One demon told Dean, the older brother, “Sam is fair game to me.” (Sam is the younger brother in the show.)

When I first heard, it wasn’t clear to me. I was thinking, “what could that mean?” We all know what “fair” and “game” mean, right? Then, it should be easy to understand but not really.

So, I thought the demon was saying that he and Sam are equally powerful so that their fight would be fair when they have mano-a-mano.

My first guess was not that far off, I guess. Here is what fair game means.

A person or thing that is considered a reasonable target for criticism, exploitation, or attack.

So, it has pretty bad connotation. If someone says that your are fair game, that is not good. You should tell him that you are not right away.

Let’s have sometime to tell the truth. Who was your fair game? Your high school teachers? I hope not. How about your sister? 🙂

22 May

stack and stacked

Who taught: Emmett

Short stack (http://boston.tumblr.com/)

One of the things I regularly do is watching TV shows. For native English speakers, this might be a waste of time. On the other hand, I find it is very helpful for non-native English speakers to watch TV shows regularly to improve listening comprehension skills.

In everything I do, I have a goal. My goal here is to be able to understand what they say even without focusing too much. It is still far from achieving the goal but it is getting closer day by day.

So, recently, I found a TV show that I like on Netflix. It’s called “Switched at Birth.” It is a story about two teenagers who were switched at birth and about their families. It is not one of those shows that I would recommend you to watch but I personally like it. You know what I mean! It is OK.

A few days ago, while I was watching an episode, I heard a very familiar word, stack. For computer science teachers like me, it is one of those words that have to be included in most conversations. I will not go into details about why. But, if you are burning with curiosity, you should consider to take my course.

A very well-known definition of the word is “an orderly pile, especially one arranged in layers.”

Let me have you feel this definition. Do you know what is one of the favorite brunch menus in the U.S.? It’s pancake. When you order pancakes, normally you get 5 to 10 pancakes piled up on top of each other. So, when you order it, what do you say? You can say, “I will have a short stack.” I heard this exact expression from another TV show, “Supernatural.” I am sure you can now really feel the word, stack.

Good but not good! Why? Because Emmett used this word to mean a totally different thing. Well…. probably not that different but it took some time for me to finally get it.

He and his friend were talking about a girl who has pretty big breast. I mean big boobs. But, instead of saying, “She has large boobs,” he said, “She is stacked.” Ha… Interesting, isn’t it? Here is the way I imagine to make this most sense. If a girl who has big those lies down in a bed, you can almost think them stacked on top of her chest. If it is too small, then you cannot even notice them; nothing is stacked.

What do you think? Do you like my analysis? Also, you can use this expression to describe a man, like “he is stacked.” I know I am not stacked at all. Are you stacked?

Now, the question is “how much is stacked and how much is too much?”