Tag Archives: pat

23 Jun

upset the applecart

Who taught: Zac, Leah, Pat and Carol

do not upset the applecart

Suppose that you live in 100 years ago and, one day, organize a hand cart full of apples to sell them in your yard and suddenly I come in and upset the cart! You would be like, “Dude, what have you done? Everything was perfect and organized and now, all of it sudden, it is all ruined.” Yup! So, there is an expression, “upset the applecart.” Last night, Zac and Leah told me this expression and I looked at the origin of the expression. It goes pretty far back. Here is what I found from the Internet.

This phrase is first recorded by Jeremy Belknap in The History of New Hampshire, 1788: “Adams had almost overset the apple-cart by intruding an amendment of his own fabrication on the morning of the day of ratification” [of the Constitution].

So, as you can easily find out, this expression simply means, “to create a difficulty.”

A few days ago, Carol came to me to give me a book as a present. The title of the book is “Should you judge this book by its cover?” and the author is Julian Baggini. It is about 100 English sayings and quotations. I found one expression which has similar meaning to the applecart one.

“Let sleeping dogs lie!”

Interestingly, Pat used this expression a few weeks ago when he was talking about his work. Again, it means “do not make anything fine not fine.” Based on the book, this expression was first used in the late 14th century. The author also said,

Most people quite understandably do not like dealing with difficult problems and will seek any excuse to put off confronting them. It would be so much better if we could sort out our gravest difficulties when things are at their least, not most, tumultuous.

What do you think? Do you agree? In some sense, I do agree. But, I don’t know why, as I am getting older, I do think sometimes it is really better to let sleeping dogs lie. And, if you get lucky enough, there would be no bigger issues at all.

22 Jun

skid down the street

Correction (June/23/2010) : The expression is “Skipping down the street.”

Who taught: Pat and Stan

Lightning bugs

One of the things I find very pleasing in the U.S. is lightning bugs. I remember I saw many of them in Korea when I was young. But, as most of the cities become very industrialized, the number of lightning bugs decreased and eventually they are all gone, I think. But, in Pittsburgh, there are so many of them you can see this time of the year, which makes me want to take a walk at night. When I say so many, I really mean it. As you walk, you can easily catch them and they are not afraid of people at all. Considering the fact that Pittsburgh is the 22nd biggest metropolitan area, it is really amazing to see that many of lightning bugs. I feel like I am looking at fireworks every night. Speaking of lightning bugs, there is a story related with them in Korea. In the old days, people catch and put them into some sort of jar to use as a light to save the cost of buying oils. I am not sure how far back it goes, though. Does anybody know, if you happen to be a Korean reader of this blog?

This morning, I met Pat and Stan on my way to the office. As always, I said to them, “How are you?” with my happy face. (I mean I am really happy all the time. There are so many things I am grateful for.) Then, Pat told me, “T-Bone, You look so happy.” “Yeah, It is Tuesday, not Monday. Isn’t it so good?” I said. Then, Pat said, ” Man, you are skidding down the streets.”

Well, I did not quite get it. I had to ask, “Skidding down the streets? What does it mean?” Pat said, “Well, you know, people are skidding or sliding down the streets when they are happy. Think about the way of sliding the streets!”

Well, that is right! It is another way of describing that you are quite happy or excited. So, are you going to skid down the streets to work tomorrow? You should because you have got something to work on today!

21 Jun

twist arm

Who taught: Carol and Jake

Harley Davidson

One of the things I find really annoying in America is the sound of Harley-Davidson motorcycles. It really bothers me when anyone passes my house riding it at night when I try to focus on writing a new post. One just passed by my house. Please, somebody stop it!

This morning, I met Carol and Jake on my way to the office. Oh, did I tell you that? I walk to the office since it is really close to my house. It is like 10 minutes walking. It is so convenient! Anyway, during our Monday morning conversation, they told me one expression they thought during the weekend to tell me today. “Twist your arm?” Well, when I first heard it, I thought it would be like someone trying to hurt another person. You know like TAE KWON DO. Carol told me, “Close but you can use this expression more sarcastically. For example, if Jake asked me to go to ice cream store, then I could say like, ‘if you twist my arm!””

So, the definition of the expression I found is

to persuade someone to do something that they do not want to do

I personally have a good example. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I went mountain biking last Saturday. Pat was supposed to join but he told me he could not in Saturday Moring. Then, I sent text messages a few times, trying to make him change his mind to join. So, basically what happened was I tried to twist his arm to go to mountain biking with me but he eventually did not. Pat, it was the best mountain biking ever. You should have come. The more I think about the expression, I feel like the person whose arm get twisted is still a little bit interested in the thing he/she is supposed to do or he/she has no specific preference for something. Thus, if someone really asks him/her to do something, he/she would do it because by twisting his/her arm, he/she actually does something eventually. Am I right?

I am sure you would have similar experiences in you life. So, try to use this next time if you are in this kind of situation.

Arggggggg!! Another Harley-Davidson just passed by again! Dang! I hate that sound. It is so loud!

17 Jun

pull What?

Who taught: Andrew, Pat, Ari and Jean

The first ultimate frisbee in my life! That’s right. I played it today with my friends. To be honest, I thought it would be easy but it is not. It is hard physically as well as technically. Nothing is easy in the world! Don’t you agree? But, that is why it is good to be alive. I mean you gotta love challenges because, at the end of the day, you, not anybody else in the world, are the one who would feel accomplishments if you overcome all of the challenges.

Andrew told me the rules of this game. Instead of my explaining here, I will give you a good link about the game for you in case you are really interested in. One of the rules is very similar to the American football. If one team scores, then each team lines up in their own sides of the field and the team which just scored throws the disc from its side to the other side. For this one, a team member who is good at throwing the disc takes the action. Andrew called this action, “pulling.” Patrick and I were curious about it. “Hey, why is it pulling, not pushing or throwing?” “I think it is because most people do backside throw and it looks like you pull the disc from inside of your body,” Andrew said. It sounds reasonable. Then, hearing that, I said, “All right! Let’s pull out!” “T-Bone! Pull out is different from pull,” Andrew told me. At that moment, I remembered that I had a very similar conversation with Jean and Ari before.

About one year ago, all of the techies in my company went to a retreat together. During a break, we were having a small talk about getting older. No offense to older people than me! But, I now started to have gray hairs and Ari noticed that I have a few of them. “Hey, Terry! You have gray hairs there,” she said. “I know, every time I found them, I ask Jessy to pull them out,” I said. Well, at that moment, Jean said, “I think pull out is not really good to use there.” We were like, “Why? What is wrong with pull out?” “It actually has a different meaning,” Jean said. Well, it turns out pull out has a very very different meaning. Here is the definition for you I found from the Urban Dictionary.

A form of birth control practiced by idiot couples to prevent pregnancy.

It is also called “Pull Out (Withdrawl) Method”.

I do not want to put too explicit ones here but there are bunch of different definitions in the Urban Dictionary and, interestingly, every single of them is the same. The only difference is the degree of explicitness. If you still cannot understand the meaning of it, here is the link for you!

So, to me, it sounds like it is not a good idea to use “pull out” expression. Am I correct? When do you use that expression except for this meaning? In addition, what kind of expression should I use to describe the action of removing my gray hairs? Maybe, take out?

15 Jun

PUN series 1

Who taught : Andrew, Jake, Stan, Carol and Pat

First of all, you should read today’s post really carefully because it is hard for non-native English speakers to understand.

One day, Andrew wanted to ask a question to Jean. He said, “Jean, can I interrupt you for a sec?” As soon as she heard the question, Jean said, “Oh, I have not started my flow yet.” Following Jean’s answer, there was a pause for a few seconds because they all did not know what to say. Do you know why? Well, when Jean said it, she meant her work flow. She was saying that she did not really get into a specific work now so that Andrew can ask the question to her. But, the sentence Jean used has a different meaning for women.

It could mean that a woman is not having her period yet even though it is about the time that she is supposed to have menstruation. Similar expression is “shark week.” So, if any woman says that “it is my shark week,” then you should be careful. Although I doubt any woman would say that to you if you are a guy unless you are her husband or something. So, basically this kind of expression is called “PUN.”

The official definition of PUN is :

a clever and amusing use of a word or phrase with two meanings, or of words with the same sound but different meanings.

pun cartoon

There is a story Andrew told me today which is another perfect example of PUN.

When he was young, his father was coaching basketball in a school. Whenever there is a practice, they were using balls owned by Andrew’s father. The practice was done in a court where all of the other students were also using. One day, the practice was done and his father was talking to the students. But then, his mother realized that there were some missing balls. She looked around to find them but was not able to find them. So, she thought that maybe the other students were using a few of her missing balls. To make sure, she approached the male students who were practicing in the court and asked, “Hey boys! Have you seen balls with Cox on them?” Do you get it? Well, if you are native English speakers, I am sure you get it. But I am also almost 100% sure you would not get it if you are non-native English speakers. So, Andrew’s last name is Cox and of course his father wrote down his last name on the balls. “Cox” on the balls! Now, pronounce “Cox”! Can you feel it? What? you can’t… OK, here is the thing! There is a word which has very similar pronunciation but different meaning. It is “Cock.” Well, the word usually means rooster. But for some reason, it also means penis. Again, I became so curious why people decided to use the word, cock, to mean penis. Here is what I found from the WikiAnswer.

A penis is called a cock because it is said to resemble a bird, and because the rooster is a symbol of masculinity in some cultures. Similarly, in Spanish a penis is commonly called a pajaro (bird), a pavo (turkey), or a polla (chicken). Perhaps the most bird-like penises are those that tend to tilt or curve slightly southward when erect (similar to the natural curvature of a rooster neck and head), the pubic hair at the base of the penis could also be said to resemble the ring or collar of feathers displayed by some roosters. The large wattles (i.e. the fleshy sack) that form on both turkeys and some roosters can also be said to resemble a man’s scrotum.

Isn’t it very interesting to know the origin?

Can you now understand why the sentence that Andrew’s mother used to the boys would be so funny? Yeah, that is right. They would be thinking like, “Well…. I think I have seen them but should I show them to you right now?”, in their minds. (You know, they are all boys and it is not a surprise that they have balls and Cocks.)

What a funny thing to learn, PUN! Well, there is another story related with PUN. I will amuse you with that later. 🙂