Splendid Similes 5

As Cunning as a Fox That Used to Be Professor of Cunning at Oxford University but Has Moved On and Is Now Working for the UN at the High Commission of International Cunning Planning

I love Blackadder so much! Gosh I hope I made the capitalisation right... Actually, in order to write this article I've seen the Blackadder Back & Forth in English for the first time - I'm glad that both Blackadder (the original series) and this one have such great Czech dubbing. Blackadder is swarming with great, hilarious and incredibly long similes, and these three are taken from the Back & Forth movie.

1. It tastes as if someone with a bad chest cold has taken two spoonfuls of Benylin to loosen the phlegm and then coughed all over an avocado (Chutná to jako kdyby chcípák s nachcípanými průduškami spolkl dvě lžíce Bromhexinu, a pak vykašlal navrch celé avokádo)

- I'm so proud that I still remember it by heart :)

2. (Baldrick, you really are) as thick as clotted cream that’s been left out by some clot until the clots are so clotted up we couldn’t unclot them with an electric declotter (ty jsi vážně namouduši tuplovaně tupej tupec, tupější než votupená kudla, kterou ztupil tupec jako ty, takže už ji nenabrousí ani elektrický detupilátor)

- I really love how they translated it :)

3. As cunning as a fox what used to be professor of cunning at oxford university but has moved on and he’s now working for the UN at the high commission of international cunning planning  (Je tak fikanej jako filuta co bejval profesorem filutologie na Oxfordu ale dotáh' to vejš? Až na vysoký úřad komisaře OSN pro mezinárodní fikané plánování? ... jo, to je)

- Hmmm. That's cunning. 

So, what's your favourite Blackadder line/ simile? :) 

Incredible Idioms 4

Seeing is Understanding

Well, here's the thing. I am so unbelievably sorry that I missed my last week's idiomatic session and that I am late this week! I cannot express how deeply sorry I am. But you know, two essays had to be written and handed in and then I had to settle my financial dealings and that took quite a long time and most of my energy and mental capacity. And on Sunday evening, our foreign guest arrived and I have beeng trying my best to make his stay pleasant. He's still here, but because I have done almost all my other duties, I finally have time AND the energy to contribute to my idiom series. See? It's not that I am lazy! :D

But I should probably get to the point, right? So, as you can see, for the English language, seeing is understanding. Maybe in your language it works like this as well. For example, in French, you also have this idiomatic tendency and when you understand something, you can say: Je vois. Which surprisingly means .... I see! This relationship between seeing and understanding is a broad one. Understanding is also connected with clearness (of sight) and many other visual stimuli. 

I cannot understand my flatmates explanations, they are as clear as mud.

Seeing my friend drunk was a real eye-opener - he's such a boor!

When you see the presentation of our new project, you'll get the picture.

I want to clear up the misunderstanding we had earlier.

People who are in love are simply blinkered with their feelings and cannot see the imperfections of their partners.

From my point of view it is a problem and we should deal with it!

Thinking that the nation can be healed from the wrongs of the past in one generation is a very short-sighted view.

Source: Joe Wright - Idiom Organiser

Picture: http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/13/132154/2246014-I_see_what_you_did_there_super.jpg

Alan Brinkley – The Unfinished Nation: A Concise History of the American People

As a first year English language & literature student I had quite high expectations about my American history course, including the text book. Why? I knew absolutely nothing about American history. And so I decided that I would take this seriously and do my readings.

When I discovered that the book was a 900 page monster, I was not exactly happy. But as I started reading, I was actually surprised. Getting through the first chapter was a horror, but with each finished chapter the reading got easier. And even though the book seemed really complicated and demanding a lot of focus, these factors gradually disappeared and in the end I found the book even enjoyable.

The book is divided into chapters, each with its own subchapters. Along the sides of the text important names and keywords are given, which is very helpful for orientation. Each chapter has a summarizing conclusion and a list of sources/additional readings at the end. The book also has some appendices, unfortunately I only had the individual chapters. It’s very nice that the book doesn’t give you only “its” point of view on history but includes articles about how the perspective changed over time.

To sum it up – yes. I would recommend it. For those who have never heard anything about the American history and also for the ones who have but want to learn something more (also it's a very good one for increasing reading speed :). You probably won’t like all the chapters (I hated all the ones describing wars and the ones about Wild West – booooooring), but you can always skip the ones you don’t enjoy, right? Given that it’s not a compulsory reading, which was my case, well...

Splendid Similes 4

As Tired as a Three Toed Sloth (After) Running a Marathon

I did not make this one up, would you believe it? I was looking for a "as tired as..." simile and this one does the job perfectly. I love how insanely complicated it is, you know, stressing your tiredness by making an effort to say an extraordinarily long simile that would match your state. It doesn't make sense in a way, but I think that that's what I love about it. It reminds me of those really long Blackadder similes (I must do one of those next time!)

And why am I as tired as a three-toed sloth after running a marathon? Truth is, I don't know. I guess it's just one of those days. Everyone I've met and spoke to today was also tired and had a headache and everything was as dull as dishwater. In addition, I'm also mad about the Czech post which was supposed to deliver a nice Lush package to me so instead of writing "as tired as a.... you know" post it could have been "as snug as a bug in a rug", which is also very neat. Well, maybe next time :)