Org Trimmingsexystrippedmomanddaughter Fa Users Gettramadolnow Handling Super Heroine [休闲灌水]与考试无关的趣味英语 and 漫画英语(by installment.)_英语杂谈

　　***> (Would be nice if the moderator can patch in the music for me: -JudyCollins_SendInTheClowns.wav )
　　
　　#13 Send in the Clowns. (rewritten from a post a Rainlane.)
　　
　　 "Sending in the Clowns" are usually associated with circus acts or the vaudeville (i) When an act goes sour, or something does not go right, the management will quickly “send in the clowns” to divert attention, or to set the audience laughing again.
　　(i)Vaudeville are cheap, somewhat considered as low-class, variety theatre shows that are especially popular during the depression era. For those of you who have watched the new version of King Kong, the beginning scene is about the heroine Ann Darrow appearing in a vaudeville act.
　　
　　 "Send in the clowns” has entered mainstream English to mean one of several meanings, on of which, “Time to send in the clowns” means "something is not working right; time for a diversion and then start all over again."
　　
　　 The others include: “send those clowns in” or “send in the clowns” a derogative connotation. In that case, “those/the clowns” is a reference to incompetent people or bumbling fools. It is also used as a jovial mention ( "send in the clowns", in an upbeat tone") for brightening up someone’s day.
　　
　　 Here is a hauntingly sad song--one of my favourites--from the pc.don site. -JudyCollins_SendInTheClowns.wav
　　
　　 Here is the lyrics:
　　
　　Isn’t it rich?
　　Are we a pair?
　　Me here at last on the ground,
　　You in mid-air.
　　Send in the clowns.
　　
　　Isn’t it bliss?
　　Don’t you approve?
　　One who keeps tearing around,
　　One who can’t move.
　　Where are the clowns?
　　Send in the clowns.
　　
　　Just when I’d stopped opening doors,
　　Finally knowing the one that I wanted was yours,
　　Making my entrance again with my usual flair,
　　Sure of my lines,
　　No one is there.
　　Don’t you love farce?
　　My fault I fear.
　　I thought that you’d want what I want.
　　Sorry, my dear.
　　But where are the clowns?
　　Quick, send in the clowns.
　　
　　Don’t bother, they’re here.
　　Isn’t it rich?
　　Isn’t it queer,
　　Losing my timing this late
　　In my career?
　　And where are the clowns?
　　There ought to be clowns.
　　Well, maybe next year.
　　==
　　The following satircal cartoon uses the "derogatory" version of "send in the clowns."
　　

　　#14 Ours is not to reason why. (ours is but to do or die.)
　　
　　This expression comes in three versions: (with "ours" replaceable by other possessive pronouns: yours, his....)
　　
　　(1) Ours is not to reason why; ours is but to do or die.
　　(2) Ours is not to reason why. (And the second part is understood.)
　　(3) .....ours is but to do and die.
　　
　　 This is a popular saying for people who are given an reaonable task. Soldiers like to quote this phrase.
　　
　　 The phrase is a paraphrase from Lord Tennyson’s famous poem "Charge of the Light Bridgade " ( 轻骑兵进击 )
　　
　　 The particular stanza from that poem in which this expression is taken and paraphrased is:
　　
　　"Forward, the Light Brigade!"
　　Was there a man dismayed?
　　Not tho’ the soldiers knew
　　Someone had blundered:
　　Theirs not to make reply,
　　**Theirs not to reason why,
　　Theirs but to do and die: **
　　Into the valley of Death
　　Rode the six hundred.
　　
　　-----
　　
　　Example of use: For most student taking the CET-4 exam, it is a matter of "theirs is not to reason why; theirs is but to do or die."
　　
　　

　　#15/#16
　　 Singing the blues
　　 Wrong side of the tracks.
　　
　　Blues: (sufrering from the blues): melancholy, depression. Here "The Blues" refers to a genre of music--a form of Jazz started by black Americans. It is melancholic and employs the repeated use of "blue notes." (For those with musical training, blue notes are: "a variable microtonal lowering of the third, seventh, and occasionally fifth degrees of the major scale ." I have a link but it is one of those long drawn out URLs that causes a malfunction in the display of this page. Go to and type in "what are blue notes.")
　　
　　Singing the blues: Actually singing it, or metaphorically, "you are experiencing the blues." E.g. "Hey man, my girl left me, and I lost my job. I am left here all by myself singing the blues. "
　　
　　Wrong side of the tracks: Tracks: railroad tracks. Wrong side of the tracks means the bad side of a city or town where people of lower social-economic status live. In many U.S. cities in the old days--and even today--the railroad runs through the middle of a town. The downwind side (where the smoke from those old coal-fired steam engines will blow) is where the "poorer people" live. I was born on the wrong side of the tracks means I was born in a poor neighourhood, a crime-infested neighourhood, or a run-down neighourhood.
　　
　　The Grass looks browner: The father is making fun of the proverb "The grass always looks greener on the other side of the fence." Since the situation at hand is "the wrong side of the track", he changes it to "the grass looks browner...."
　　
　　
　　

　　#17 Ad Nauseum
　　 Ad nauseam is something that goes on ad infinitum, so much so, it makes you sick. (nauseating.)
　　
　　When you keep on doing something until the point people are sick about it, you are acting ad nauseam. An example given by several of the on-line dictionaries is: He played the song ad nauseam.
　　
　　Here is where it is important to use an E to E dictionary.
　　
　　Look at the slight difference between Lividict’s Chinese definition, Kingsoft’s Chinese definition, and English definitions:
　　
　　lookup/ad%20nauseam.html
　　
　　 ad nauseam
　　 < ad nau.se.am >
　　 <<副词>>
　　令人厌烦; 令人作呕
　　
　　Kingsoft: 令人作呕地
　　
　　 ad nauseam
　　 adv : to a sickening extent
　　
　　 to extreme degree: to an extreme or annoying extent
　　
　　 : to a sickening or excessive degree
　　
　　 To a disgusting or ridiculous degree; to the point of nausea.
　　
　　It is not just something that sickens people, but an action carried to an extend that it becomes sickening.
　　
　　

　　#19 (On) A slow boat to China.
　
　 China, the exotic land of mysteries, lies far far away in the mist in the East. In the days before jet liners, it would take weeks to get there by boat, much longer if it is a "slow boat." The expression "a slow boat to China" came to mean something that would take a long time to do. It also has a second meaning, and that is: "a relaxed, carefree and leisurely journey without being hurried."
　　
　　 Did the expression became popular because of the song made famous by Bing Crosby and Rose Mary Clooney? I don’t know. I heard the song before, long time ago.
　　
　　Example of use:
　　(quote) From:
　　frg/default.asp
　　Deadlines set for holiday mailings
　　
　　If you want make sure your holiday packages arrive to service members overseas on time, mail them by Nov. 13.
　　Otherwise, your package could very well be on the proverbial "slow boat to China," said Mark DeDomenic, chief of postal operations for the Military Postal Service Agency. (end quote)
　　
　　--->A sample (about 40 seconds worth) of this 1948 hit can be found at: kaykyser/music/ site) Or cut and paste this link: kaykyser/audio/T1/china.ram
　　
　　Lyrics and Midi: (Midi at ~dstephen/rainlane/slowboat.mid )
　　
　　Lyrics as found from the Internet:
　　On A Slow Boat to China
　　Music and Lyrics by Frank Loesser
　　1948
　　
　　I’d love to get you
　　On a slow boat to China,
　　All to myself alone.
　　Get you to keep you in my arms evermore,
　　Leave all your lovers (lovelies)
　　Weeping on the faraway shore.
　　
　　Out on the briny
　　With the moon big and shiny,
　　Melting your heart of stone.
　　I’d love to get you
　　On a slow boat to China,
　　All to myself alone.
　　
　　

　　#20 cow jumps over the moon
　　
　　 The comic strip above makes fun of the line “The cow jumps over the moon.” from a nursery rhyme. (From what is known as the “Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes”)
　　
　　The Nursery rhyme is “Hey Diddle Diddle” and it goes like this:
　　
　　Hey diddle diddle,
　　the cat and the fiddle,
　　The cow jumped over the moon;
　　The little dog laughed to see such sport,
　　And the dish ran away with the spoon.
　　-----------------------------------------------------
　　
　　 Children in English-speaking countries read these either as preschoolers or when they are in Kindergartens.
　　Many of these rhymes are put to song, such as Jack and Jill and Mary had a little lamb.
　　 I am sure many of you have heard of, or read Mary had a little lamb
　　Mary had a little lamb,
　　her fleece is white as snow,
　　and everywhere where Mary went
　　The lamb was sure to go.
　　--------------------------------------------
　　
　　 The “pun” in the comics in on the word “moon.” Notice the cow is jumping over the butt of a naked man.
　　
　　 Moon and Mooning
　　
　　Moon is the slang for "the rear end" or to put it bluntly, your ass (arse). (Cantonese call that part of your anatomy the 八月十五 )
　　
　　 Mooning means showing your bottom as an act of defiance or disrespect.
　　(Dictionary definition: Slang. To expose one’s buttocks in public as a prank or disrespectful gesture.)
　　-----------------------------
　　
　　(Picture below: "mooning" someone.

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