Tag Archives: andrew

26 May

Mile high club

Who taught: Mark, Andrew, Jake, Pete and Shawn

Peanut butter jelly

First, let me start with a very simple story. I think one of the favorite lunch box menu in America is peanut butter jelly. Do you know what peanut butter jelly is? I am pretty sure there are some people do not know what it is. Here I am adding a picture for you. Yeah, it is a sandwich which has peanut better and jelly in it. I found one interesting statistics from the Wikipedia.

A 2002 survey showed the average American will have eaten 1,500 of peanut butter jelly sandwiches before graduating from high school.

So, if you go to a Walmart or Giant Eagle (if you are in Pittsburgh), check the Jam aisle. You will find some different types of stuff. They are Jam, Preserves and Jelly. You know what the difference is between them? Here is the good comparison I found from TLC cooking.

It all depends on the form that the fruit takes.
1. In jelly, the fruit comes in the form of fruit juice.
2. In jam, the fruit comes in the form of fruit pulp or crushed fruit (and is less stiff than jelly as a result).
3. In preserves, the fruit comes in the form of chunks.

So, which one is your favorite? Mine is preserves. I like to chew something. So, jelly is not my cup of tea. Well, then, what if you put preserves into your sandwich along with peanut butter. Is it “peanut butter jelly”? Technically, NO! Some may argue though. 🙂

Mile High Club?

Shall we move on to the main expression I learned today? Eating lunch, we were talking about some stories. And, suddenly, Mark used an expression, “Mile High Club.” At first, I thought it is a sort of special mileage membership club. But, it turns out it has nothing to do with mileage. Here is a great definition from the Wikipedia.

a slang term applied collectively to individuals who have sex while on board an aircraft in flight.

Well, one of the questions I asked my friends was “Is there really a club?” Well, it turns out there is. Check this (www.milehighclub.com) out! They also have an instruction page about how to become a member. Here is one of the steps they mentioned. “Before you start your aerial pleasures, make sure you are at least 5,280ft AGL (a mile high above the earth), just to make it official.” So, if you dare to become a member, please keep in mind this rule! I was not able to find any benefit information page though. They should have some benefits to make people be motivated. 🙂

19 May

shoe in phrases

Who taught: Carl, Andrew and Jake

Gabby Reece with her family

Today, I stumbled upon an interesting post, Gabby Reece‘s bucket list. She listed 10 things she wants to do before she dies. I really like one of them, “Live in The Now!” In the post, she said,

There are guys who work-work-work and have no time to enjoy it. I don’t get it. What I’m snobby about is my time. Life is happening right now: I tell my friends, if you’re unhappy, change it or stop talking about it.

Well, I guess she is right. If you are unhappy now and working too much now because you think you will be happy later, when do you think you would be happy? So, hope you are all enjoying your now!

Last week, I went to Louisville, KY for business trip with my boss, Carl. At the airport, we were talking about having children. He said, “Well, it is interesting, being a parent. You know, when you are young, you made bunch of mistakes which makes your parents unhappy or concerned. I understand what they felt before since the shoe is on the other foot.” Another good example of proper usage of this expression would be “teachers being in classroom as students.” I think teachers should have a lot more chances to be in classroom as students so that they should think about their own teaching methodology to make their classes much more fun. What do you think? Don’t you agree?

Today, I had dinner together with my friends, Patrick, Jake, Andrew and Alex. I brought the shoe expression up. And we talked about the other useful expressions with “shoe” in it.

waiting for the other shoe to drop

This expression is something you can use to describe the situation that you know something is going to happen due to the event which already happened. I found really reasonable origin of this expression, a story happened in an inn, and I think this would really help your understanding of the expression.

A guest who checked into an inn one night was warned to be quiet because the guest in the room next to his was a light sleeper. As he undressed for bed, he dropped one shoe, which, sure enough, awakened the other guest. He managed to get the other shoe off in silence, and got into bed. An hour later, he heard a pounding on the wall and a shout: “When are you going to drop the other shoe?” Thus the term “waiting for the other shoe to drop.”
One takeaway from today’s post! If you hear any new expression, try to find out the origin of it, it really helps you to remember the expression and use it later. And, don’t forget! Live in The Now!
17 May

shiny vs bright

Who taught: Bunch of my friends at work

Having lunch on the rooftop terrace (Miss you! Ari)

Every Friday, my company provides free lunch. We also have rooftop terrace where people can take a break or have lunch together. Last Friday, the weather was so nice that a lot of people went up to the roof to have lunch together. I, of course, joined them and by the time I got up, there were already many people. As I was approaching to the people, I must have made smiling face. Andrew asked me, “Hey, T-Bone, why are you smiling?” “Because it is so shiny!”, I said. Well, at that moment, everybody started to laugh. I had no idea why. Pete said, “all of your friends here laughing at you. What is going on?” “I know, what the heck? Why are you laughing?”, I answered. Then, people explained to me why. “Terry, shiny is not correct there. You should say like, ‘It is so bright’ or ‘too much sunshine.'” I had to ask again, “Why not?” “Well, shiny should have some objects to go with. And, weather is not an object.” Honestly, I always thought I can use shiny to describe a day with a lot of sunshine. But, apparently, I am wrong.
So, to sum it up, you can use SHINY when you describe an object. It always goes with some kind of reflection coming from any object. For example, if your friends bought a new car, you can say, “Your car is so shiny.”
When it comes to describing weather, it should be like, “It is so bright that I cannot open my eyes.”
I guess this is one of the hard things about SPEAKING English. You have to be fast in choosing proper words and it is hard to be correct all the time.

Now that I am thinking about the situation again, I should have responded to my friends, “Well, I meant you guys are so shiny that makes me smile.” What do you think? 🙂