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?”