crow about

Dec.21のThe Japan Times Onlineにあった記事タイトルです。
Japan finds a little to crow about
The Copenhagen deal has been roundly condemned, but Japan views it as a victory for getting China and the United States on board and for paving the way to a future climate pact.
タイトルにある "crow about" は自慢するに近い意味ではないかと推測しますが辞書で確認します。
・OneLook Quick Definitions: express pleasure verbally ("She crowed with joy")
・Dictionary.com: to gloat, boast, or exult (often fol. by over).
記事の続きの一部を次に引用しますがいずれもせよCOP15での成果は鳩山首相が自慢できるようなものではありませんね。
But whether Japan was effective in getting its message out to the international media is questionable. Press briefings were done mainly for the Japanese media, even though some 3,500 journalists from all over the world were working at the Bella Center. Other major emitters held numerous news conferences.

double bind

リーダーズダイジェスト11月号の "Ask Aunty" のコーナーの投書に面白い表現がありました。
I'm the sole assistant in a small office. My supervisor is frequently out, and I support another person who doesn't like my boss and wants things done his own way. The two of them don't talk, and I end up doing everything twice - making two lists, reports, filing sysems. Is there some way out of this double bind?
最後の文にある "double bind" は「板ばさみ」の様な意味である事は容易に推測できますが、辞書での説明を見ます。
・American Herritage Dictionary:
1. A psychological impasse created when contradictory demands are made of an individual, such as a child or an employee, so that no matter which directive is followed, the response will be construed as incorrect.
2. A situation in which a person must choose between equally unsatisfactory alternatives; a punishing and inescapable dilemma.
・Dictionary.com:
1. Psychology. a situation in which a person is given conflicting cues, esp. by a parent, such that to obey one cue is to disobey the other.
2. dilemma ( =a situation requiring a choice between equally undesirable alternatives.).
・OneLook Quick Definitions:
(psychology) an unresolvable dilemma; situation in which a person receives contradictory messages from a person who is very powerful
"double bind" は親とか上司とか一人の人間の命令/メッセージから生じることもあるのですね。
"catch 22" も同じ様な意味で使われる事もありますね。

Brush for what?

Reader's Digest９月号 "6th Annual Humour Special" から最後に紹介するのはSwitzerlandのジョークです。
Wife: Honey, did you notice? I bought a new toilet brush.
Husband: Yes, I did. But I still prefer the paper.
日本の "high-tech toilet" をこのスイス人に紹介したくなります。（古代の"toilet" に興味がおありならこちらに私がトルコの遺跡で撮った写真と記事があります。）

sleeper

Reader's Digest, ９月号のWord Power、ハリウッド映画用語特集にあった問題です。
ハリウッドの映画業界での "sleeper" の意味は次ぎのどれでしょう？
A: film that builds success slowly
B: silent joke
C: bedroom scene
答えはAで、RDにあった例文は：
But it became the summer's sleeper after winning the grand prize on "America's Funniest Home Videos."
でした。　辞書にこのような用例があるか調べてみます。
・OneLook Quick Definitions　an unexpected hit ("That movie was the sleeper of the summer")
・Dictionary.com: something or someone that becomes unexpectedly successful or important after a period of being unnoticed, ignored, or considered unpromising or a failure: The play was the sleeper of the season.
・Movie Terminology Glossary: AKA: Sleeper Hit; An unpromising or unpublicized movie that suddenly attains prominence and success.

pass

"The Old Man and the Sea" を読み終わったので図書館から借りたもう一冊 Agatha Christieの "Murder in the Mews" を読み始めたのですが読み始めて直ぐに前に聞いた事がある話だと感じました。自分のブログを見たら昨年の６月に読んだ本である事が分かりました。小説のタイトルはほとんど記憶していなかったので同じ本を借りたのでした。　そこでO. Henry短編集の昨年の読み残りの半分を再び読むことにします。 O. Henryの短編集には詐欺師の話が幾つかありますが "Jeff Peter as a Personal Magnet" もその一つで次ぎの文はそこからです。
"'I do feel some little better, Doc,' says the Mayor, 'damed if I don't. Now state a few lies about my not having this swelling in my left side, and I think I could be propped up and have some sausage and buckwheat cakes.'
"I made a few passes with my hands.
"'Now,' says I, 'the inflammation's gone. The right lobe of the perihelion has subsided. You're getting sleepy. You can't hold your eyes open any longer. For the present the disease is checked. Now, you are asleep.'
詐欺師が病気の市長に手で何かをしたようですが、"I made a few passes with my hands." の "pass" を辞書で調べます。
・Dictionary.com: (in feats of magic) a. a passing of the hand over, along, or before anything.
・Webster's New World College Dictionary, 4th Ed.:
5. a motion of the hands that is meant to deceive, as in card tricks or magic; sleight of hand
6. a motion or stroke of the hand, as in mesmerism or hypnotism
7. a) a motion of the hand as if to strike; b) a tentative attempt
"pass" にこんな意味があるなんて面白いですね。

quarter

The Old Man and the Seaに馴染みのない "quarter" の用例がありました。
The sharks did not hit him again until just before sunset.
The old man saw the brown fins coming along the wide trail the fish must make in the water. They were not even quartering on the scent. They were headed straight for the skiff swimming side by side.
この "quarter" は以前読んだ "DADDY-LONG-LEGS" に出てきた "quarter" の意味（"to cut the body of (a person) into quarters, esp. in executing for treason or the like" ref. "quartered"）とも違います。
辞書を見ます。 引用文に合う意味はなかなか見あたりませんが、Dictionary.comの "quarter" の項３７と４０番目に次ぎの説明がありました。
"to traverse (the ground) from left to right and right to left while advancing, as dogs in search of game; to range to and fro, as dogs in search of game"
老人と海は陸上の話ではありませんがこの意味で使っているのは間違いないでしょう。

sound

The Old Man and the Seaの一節です。
What I will do if he sounds and dies I don't know.
この "he" と言うのは針にかかっている大きな魚のことですがここに出てくる "sounds" の意味は初めて知りました。それは「水底に達する」と言う意味だそうです。いつもの様に英英辞書で確認します。
・Dictionary.com: to go down or touch bottom, as a lead.

man-of-war

The Old Man and the Seaに "man-of-war" と言う興味の湧く表現がありました。
Just then he saw a man-of-war bird with his long black wings circling in the sky ahead of him.
"man-of-war bird" は軍艦鳥の事だそうです。英英辞書の説明を見ます。
・OneLook Quick Definitions: long-billed warm-water seabird with wide wingspan and forked tail
次ぎの文にも "man-of-war" が出てきますがこれはまた別の生物を指しています。
But the bird was almost out of sight now and nothing showed on the surface of the water but some patches of yellow, sun-bleached Sargasso weed and the purple, formalized, iridescent, gelatinous bladder of a Portuguese man-of-war floating close beside the boat.
"Portuguese man-of-war" はカツオノエボシの事だそうです。　これも英英辞書を見ます。
・Encarta® World English Dictionary: sea organism resembling jellyfish: a sea organism hydrozoan that resembles a jellyfish and lives in warm waters. It has a transparent gas-filled float and long stinging, often poisonous tentacles.

a terminal of the lottery

図書館から正月休みに読む本として対訳ヘミングウェイの「老人と海」と対訳クリスティ、「ミューズ殺人事件、他」を借りてきました。実際に読めるかどうかは怪しいものですが何せ借りるのはただですから。
ギャンブルはほとんどしませんが、宝くじをよく買う"statistically-challenged" 私としては興味を引く表現が最初に読み始めた「老人と海」にありました。
'Do you think we should buy a terminal of the lottery with an eighty-five? Tomorrow is the eighty fifth day.'
"a terminal of the lottery with an eighty-five" は註に「下２桁が８５の宝くじ」とありました。
確認のために辞書にこの様な用例があるか探しましたが見つかりませんでした。
・Dictionary.com: a terminal part of a structure; end or extremity.
Googleでもチェックしましたが "terminal" を下の桁の意味として使う例はありませんでしたが、 "terminal" は宝くじ発行の専用端末の意味で使用されている例ばかりでした。
・Lotto Lottery Glossary: Terminal - A computerized device located at a lottery retailer that is used to sell lottery tickets and online games and to validate winning tickets of lottery, online and instant games. Terminals are connected to a lottery's central computers by phone line.
ヘミングウェイの時代にはこんな端末（Terminals）は無かったのでしょう。では現代では下２桁を何て言うかとやはりLotto Lottery Glossaryで見てみると：
Pairs - A three digit number bet whose any one pair of the first two digits, last two digits, and in some cases the first and last digit appear on the drawn number.
とごく常識的な表現が使用されていました。

old fashioned hick-kick

元旦からジョークを取り上げてしまいましたが、昨年の後半に続き日曜日はジョークの日にします。
さて、今日はRD (Sept. Issue) 6th Annual Humour SpecialにあったSwedenのジョークです。
Visiting the countryside on a hunting trip, the well-dressed man from Stockholm takes aim and shoots a duck. But the fowl drops into a farmer's field, and the farmer claims it.
Since both want it, the farmer suggest settling the dispute with an old fashioned hick-kick. "I kick you as hard as I can in the crotch, then you do the same to me," he explains.
"Whoever screams the least gets the bird."
The city man agrees. So the farmer winds up and delivers a crushing blow to the man's privates, and he collapses to the ground. Twenty minutes later, when he finally manages to stand, he gasps, "My turn."
"Nah," says the farmer, turning away. "You can keep the duck."
正月のお笑いＴＶ番組を見ている気がして来ました。