ネットで本を予約して図書館から借りるので、次の本を借りれるまでに空きができます。その時に読む手持ちの本 Understand Psychologyの第６章Motivationに今日覚えたい言葉 "homeostasis" の説明があります。
Psychologists investigating such physiological motives have found that these mechanisms are all concerned with getting the right balance in the body. As long as everything is at the right kind of level, we don't feel the motivation. But if something becomes imbalanced, for instance, if our blood sugar level gets too low or if we don't have a high enough level of fuid in the body, then we take action to put it right. This is known as maintaining homeostasis - maintaining the appropriate balance in the body so that we can function well, physically.
...
Physiological motives such as hunger and thirst serve to maintain homeostasis in the body.
"homeostasis" の意味は文中にありますし、以前 Biologyの本に出てきたことも思い出しました。今度は覚えられるかな。
ホームレスだったThe Pursuit of Happynessの主人公はやっと家賃の安い家を見つけ、そこに住めるようになりました。
My good friend Latrell Hammond insisted that I come get the five pound of neck bones she had just bought that day. What the hell, I'd never cooked neck bones, but I went and got them just the same, figuring that I'd have some OJT in the kitchen, and then I went out to buy a secondhand freezer. At the grocery store, where the butcher, Ms. Tookie, had the hots for me, I got some helpful hints on the basics.
この俗語的なイデオム "had the hots for" の意味が分かりません。辞書に意味が出ているでしょうか？
・Oxford English Dictionary: Be sexually attracted to: 'Maggie, if you have the hots for Bianca, grow some balls and say so.’
・McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs: to be sexually aroused by someone. Perry has the hots for Earline.
・Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms: to be strongly sexually attracted to someone He's got the hots for that new girl Libby.: Usage notes: sometimes used in a humorous way that is not sexual: Consumers have the hots for DSL Internet connections.
そんな意味ですか。毎週見ている笑点の小遊三を連想しました。ホームレス時代のエピソードに、自動販売機が故障して釣銭が出なかったと言ってホテルのフロントから釣銭代を稼ぐ個所も小遊三風ですね。
The Pursuit of Happynessの主人公は結局離婚し、昼間の仕事はありますが、息子連れのホームレスとなりました。
The deal was this. No one was admitted into the hotel before 6:00 P.M., and everyone had to be out by 8:00 A.M. No one received a key. No going out once you were in for the night, and no leaving your things in the room because they'd be gone when you returned. When you left the room, you took everything you owned with you. No one was assigned the same room two nights in a row.
It was catch-as-catch-can. And if you didn't get there early, before the hotel filled up, you were out of luck. There were no reservations, no one giving you special treatment and saying, "We knew you were coming so we held you a spot."
ホームレスが夜寝られる場所を紹介して貰えましたが、先着順なので毎晩泊まれるとは限りません。上の引用文にある "catch-as-catch-can" はどんな意味でしょうか？ 早い者勝ち？ 何でしょうか、辞書を見ます。
・Collins Dictionary: (mainly US & Canadian) using any method or opportunity that comes to hand: That right is cherished here, but in practice it's catch-as-catch-can.
・Dictionary.com: Also, catch-can. taking advantage of any opportunity; using any method that can be applied: a catch-as-catch-can life, as an itinerant handyman.
・Infoplease Dictionary:(idiomatic) intermittent; only when possible or when the opportunity presents itself My efforts lately have been catch-as-catch-can, not carefully planned.
・McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs: the best one can do with whatever is available. We went hitchhiking for a week and lived catch-as-catch-can. There were ten children in our family, and every meal was catch-as-catch-can.
早い者勝ちではありませんでしたね。行き当たりばったり、その日暮らしと言ったところでしょうか。
An old man was driving down the motorway when his phone rang. Answering, he heard his wife's voice urgently warning him, "Vernon, I just heard on the news that there's a car going the wrong way on the M5. Please be careful!" "Heck," replied Vernon, "It's not just one car. It's hundreds of them!" 実は私もこの経験があります。日本からシカゴに駐在となり自分の車で初めて出勤した日の夜、残業が終えて、会社の敷地から右に回り一般道に出て自宅に向かって走っていると、正面にまぶしいヘッドライトが見えて来ました。なんて奴だ、反対車線を走るなんてと思った瞬間、米国では車は右側を走ることに気が付きました。日本で車を運転している方が米国で運転する場合は十分に注意して下さい。
誰が言ったのか、あるいは何の記事に書かれていたのかメモするのを忘れましたが、Reader's Digest June 2014で見かけた文です。
An outrageously high salary paid to CEOs. middle managers, civil servants or assorted lucky others, which dwarfs the microsalaries going to most workers.
日本では最低賃金の制度があり、地域により最低賃金の額は異なりますが最も高い東京でも時給で８５０円（H25年）です。物価や生活費を考えるとこれではどんなに働いても大変ですよね。
Complicating those principles was the crumbling foundation of my relationship with Jackie. When I first came home to tell her what had happened, she said absolutely nothing. What could she say? "Sorry, old chap, hang in there," but she didn't. We had no savings, no income, only bills. Not anything extravagant, just your normal run-of-the-mill living bills: food, rent, car note, day care, Pampers.
"car note" という言い方は知りませんでしたが、日常の支払（請求書）の一つなので車の月賦の事かと思います。辞書を見ます。
普通の辞書には "car note" の見出しはありませんでしたが、俗語辞典のUrban Dictionaryには次の説明がありました。
another name for a car payment.: Auto Plaza got my car note so low I can actually pay it this time.
The Pursuit of Happynessの主人公は一応まともな仕事にありついた様です。
While I promised to do that as soon as I could make the arrangements, what had been an insurmountable process of finding my new niche in the working world was all of a sudden a cakewalk. With my sights fixed on the possibilities of making my way in the business world. I quickly landed a job as a sales rep for a medical equipment and supply company called CMS.
"cakewalk" は "a piece of cake" を思い起こさせる表現ですが、語源も知りたい。
・Oxford English Dictionary: An absurdly or surprisingly easy task: 'winning the game won't be a cakewalk’
・Cambridge English Dictionary:something that is very easy to achieve: The Superbowl was a cakewalk for the Forty-Niners.
由来はEtymology.comに次の説明がありました。
probably in reference to the cake given as a prize for the fanciest steps in a procession in a Southern black custom (explained by Thornton, 1912, as, "A walking competition among negroes," in which the prize cake goes to "the couple who put on most style"). Its figurative meaning of "something easy" (1863) is recorded before the literal one (1879). As a verb, from 1909. This may also be the source of the phrase to take the cake (1847).
The Pursuit of Happynessの主人公は大人になりました。
After coming out of the military, where everything had been about discipline, process, order, and structure, I experienced the city that celebrated individuality and nonconformity above all else as if I was actually visiting a foreign country. My favorite stomping grounds became Haight-Ashbury, once the cradle of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll, still jumping with music clubs, restaurants, bookstores, head shops, and a crazy street scene that was colorful and alive.
"head shops" どんな店なのか全く見当がつかないので辞書を見ます。
・Vocabulary.com: a shop specializing in articles of interest to drug users: "he bought some roach clips and hashish pipes at the head shop”
・Wiktionay: A retail outlet specializing in sale of paraphernalia related to consumption of cannabis, other recreational drugs, and New Age herbs, as well as generally selling counterculture art, magazines, music, clothing, and home decor.
何故 "head shops" と呼ばれるのか、ドラッグ自体は売らないのか（裏では販売している？）疑問が残りますが、深追いは止めておきます。
Freddieは主人公の義父ですが、酒癖が悪く、しょっちゅう暴力を振るうので、まだ少年の主人公は殺したいとまで考えるようになります。
Shortly after Baby's warning, a golden opportunity for him to suffer a freak accidental death was given to me when Freddie and I went to move a refrigerator into her house. Barking orders, Freddie told me to go in front and pull the dolly up, while he took the position below, pushing the dolly and the refrigerator up the staris.
"dolly" は人形を思わせる響きがありますが、重い冷蔵庫を動かすのに使用する物の様です。辞書を引きます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: A small platform on wheels used for holding heavy objects, typically film or television cameras.; Nearly a quarter of the film's movement - dollies, crane shots - are synthetic.
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: a piece of equipment that has wheels and that is used for moving heavy objects: We'll need a dolly to move the refrigerator.
"dolly" が何故この様な意味を持つようになったのか不思議なので調べたところ"Word Detective" に次の説明があったので引用します。
And somewhere along about 1900, somebody decided that a small wheeled platform looked sufficiently like a doll (perhaps only in comparison to larger wagons and trucks) to be called a "dolly." Dollies have been with us ever since, one of their most important modern uses being to allow TV and movie cameras to be easily moved about.
The Pursuit of Happynessを読んでいます。
Between the ages of ten and fourteen, without asking for it. I received intensive on-the-job training for a career as a professional gofer.
"gofer" は "golfer" のスペルを間違えたわけではありません。どんな仕事でしょうか？
・Collins Dictionary: (slang, mainly US & Canadian) an employee or assistant whose duties include menial tasks such as running errands: But you don't tell the gofer anything, you just use him to keep all the nasty stuff away.
・Urban Dictionary: A term for an employee, servant, or slave whose primary responsibility is to fetch items and bring them back to his or her boss, master, or owner. Formed by contraction of the words "go for". As in: "Go for coffee, go for doughnuts, go for whatever we need you damn 'gofer'.": "I sent my gofer for coffee over twenty minutes ago. If he doesn't get back soon, I'm dropping his health care benefits!"
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