hijack

Emann was at the airport when he saw a friend looking like he'd just been beaten up.
Concerned, he asked him what had happened.
Looking dazed, his friend said, "I really don't know. When I boarded the plane, I saw a friend and greeted him. Before I knew it, the airline security jumped on me."
Emann said, "Really? What did you say to your friend?"
His friend answered, "All I said was, 'Hi, Jack!'"
木久扇並みのジョークでした。

Is my time up?

今日の話題は、美容整形は命に関わるという教訓です。
A middle aged woman had a heart attack and was taken to the hospital.
While on the operating table she had a near death experience.
Seeing God, she asked "Is my time up?"
God said, "No, you have another 43 years, 2 months, and 8 days to live."
Upon recovery, the woman decided to stay in the hospital and have a facelift, liposuction, and a tummy tuck.
She even had someone come in and change her hair color.
Since she had so much more time to live, she figured she might as well make the most of it.
After her last operation, she was released from the hospital.
While crossing the street on her way home, she was killed by an ambulance.
Arriving in front of God, she demanded, "I thought you said I had another 40 years? Why didn't you pull me from out of the path of the ambulance?"
God replied, "I didn't recognize you."

shambles

パトロールカーを飛ばして自宅に戻った東京アメリカンクラブのプレジデント、J.B.が部屋に入ります。
J.B. pushed his way into the room. The place was a shambles. Bedding was strewn about the floor, lamps and tables were knocked over, and the pictures--some of individual family members and otheres of close friends--lay trampled and broken.
部屋の中はメチャメチャの様子ですが、不定冠詞の "a" が付いているのに複数形の様な "shambles" とは何でしょう？　辞書を見ます。
・American Heritage Dictionary:
a. A scene or condition of complete disorder or ruin: "The economy was in a shambles.".
b. Great clutter or jumble; a total mess: made dinner and left the kitchen a shambles.
・Vocabulary.com: Originally a word for a slaughterhouse, shambles now usually means "one heck of a mess," as in "You were supposed to clean your room, but it's still a shambles!
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: (noun plural but singular or plural in construction)
a: a place of mass slaughter or bloodshed: the battlefield became a shambles
b: a scene or a state of great destruction : wreckage: the city was a shambles after the bombing
c (1): a scene or a state of great disorder or confusion: an economy in shambles
(2): great confusion : mess
"s" が付く複数形で単複のどちらにもなると言う珍しい単語ですね。

pop

Reader's Digest 6月号の健康関連の記事、New Ways to Boost Your Immunity (With a few simple changes now, you can prime your immune system to fight off microbial invaders) にあった文を抜粋します。
Pop a vitamin D supplement
In the first clinical study of this vitamin's powers against flu, kids who took 1200 IU of vitamin D3 daily were nearly 60 percent less likely to come down with it than the placebo group.
この "Pop" はビタミンDのサプリを取ることだと思いますが、 "pop" にこの様な意味・用法がある事は知りませんでした。　辞書で確認します。
・American Heritage Dictionary: To take (drugs), especially orally: "To calm a case of the jitters . . . the bride popped Valium"
・Infoplease: to take or swallow (pills), esp. in excess or habitually; take orally in a compulsive or addictive way: Popping all those pills will land him in the hospital.
ところで、記事のサブキャプションで使われている "prime" （Ref. http://blog.alc.co.jp/blog/3302827/archive/2008/02/10）　と　"placebo" （Ref. http://blog.alc.co.jp/blog/3302827/archive/2011/05/02）は以前に取り上げた単語です。

dead air

MURDER at the Tokyo American Club：　自宅の外で何ものかに襲われたJ.B.は一端東京アメリカンクラブに警官と共にいきますが、自宅にいるはずの奥さんに電話で連絡しようとしたが、電話に出ないので、J.B.を襲った犯人が自宅の奥さんも標的にしている可能性がある事に気がつき、警官と共にパトロールカーで自宅に向かっているところです。
By the time the police car reached the major intersection at the corner, it was decided that the police should enter the apartment. J.B. listened to the dead air crackling over the radio, and then the terse remark, translated for his benefit by Kawamura, that the door was locked.
上記引用文の "listened to the dead air" はパトロールカーに乗っている場面なので、警察の無線を聴いているていると思いますが、 "dead air" がちょっと意味が分かりません。　辞書を見ます。
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: a period of silence especially during a broadcast: After the commercial, there were a few seconds of dead air before the show continued.
・Vocabulary.com: an inadvertent interruption in a broadcast during which there is no sound
なるほど、普通は放送での（会話や音の）中断で使われているようですが、小説での場面は警察無線を聴いているので、crackling 雑音だけが聞こえて、会話が聴こえない状態を指しているのですね。

ferment

A History of Western Societyは第二次世界大戦後のソ連の個所を読んでいるところです。
De-Starlinization created great ferment among writers and intellectuals, who hungered for cultural freedom. The poet Boris Pasternak (1890 - 1960), who survived the Stalinist years by turning his talents to translating Shakespeare, finished his great novel Doctor Zhivago in 1950.
"ferment" は食品の発酵にだけ使われるのと思っていましたが、日本酒やぶどう酒の発酵でブツブツと泡が沸き立つ様に、人間社会の現象にも使われるのですね。　辞書で用法を確認します。
"ferment" は名詞にも自動詞、他動詞にもなりますが、ここでは食品を（が）発酵させる（する）以外の例を取り上げます。
・Vocabulary.com:
a. be in an agitated or excited state: “The Middle East is fermenting”
b. work up into agitation or excitement: “Islam is fermenting Africa”
・Cambridge Dictionaries Online: a state of confusion or excited expectation, esp. because of changing conditions that are sudden and disorderly: He was a central figure in the religious ferment of his time.
・WordNet: a state of agitation or turbulent change or development ("The political ferment produced a new leadership")
V2 Vocabulary Building Dictionaryに "ferment" についての丁寧なTipsが次ぎの様に書かれていました。
The most common use of the word ferment (change chemically) is when referring to the process of turning sugars into alcohol. The idea is "change," "develop," or "stir up." In the negative sense, if something ferments, it stirs up and agitates. In the positive sense, if something ferments it develops to create positive change; for example, you could let an idea ferment (develop.) Also, from the original definition of change has come a new meaning of "confusion" as the result of change. If there is any kind of political or dramatic change that causes confusion, this confusion from change is often referred to as a ferment.
アイデアを熟成させる、の様な良い意味での "ferment" もあるのですね。

fits and starts

MURDER at the Tokyo American Club：　殺人事件は解決に向かっているが、まだ全面的には解決していない中で、東京アメリカンクラブのPresidentのJ.B.が何ものかに襲われ、警官が駆けつけたところです。
After considerable conversational fits and starts -- disjointed phrases, partial sentences, mysterious words, and some graphic sign language--the following points were made reasonably clear to all parties on the scene.
上の引用文にある "conversational fits and starts" の "fits and starts" は慣用句の様で、またこの中の "fits" は発作を意味する "fit" と関係がありそうです。 辞書を見ると "fits and starts" は下記の様に慣用句として載っていました。
・Vocabulary.com: repeated bursts of activity: “they worked in fits and starts”
・Wiktionary: (idiomatic) Activity which is intermittent, variable in intensity, and prolonged by interruptions: Progress in this project has come in fits and starts.
・McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs: with irregular movement; with much stopping and starting. (*Typically: by ~; in ~; with ~.) Somehow, they got the job done in fits and starts. By fits and starts, the old car finally got us to town.

Love

A man was wandering around in a field, thinking about how good his wife had been to him and how fortunate he was to have her.
He asked God, "Why did you make her so kind-hearted?"
The Lord responded, "So you could love her, my son."
"Why did you make her so good-looking?"
"So you could love her, my son."
"Why did you make her such a good cook?"
"So you could love her, my son."
The man thought about this.
Then he said, "I don't mean to seem ungrateful or anything but ... why did you make her so stupid?"
"So she could love you, my son."

An arm and a leg

After God had created Adam he noticed that he looked very lonely.
He decided to help.
He said "Adam, I've decided to make you a woman.
She'll love you, cook for you, be sweet to you, and understand you."
Adam said "Great! How much will she cost me?"
The answer came back, "An arm and a leg."
"Well," said Adam "What can I get for a rib?"

(Note: arm and a leg: (idiomatic) A very high price for an item or service; an exorbitant price; usually used after the verb cost.)

kitty

小説を読んでいて登場人物が多くなると、誰が誰だか分からなくなってくるのですが、MURDER at the Tokyo American Clubもそんな状況になってきました。この話は殺人犯人の容疑者が何人もいるので、登場人物が出て来る度にメモをして置けば良かったと後悔しているところです。　次ぎの文に出て来るMr. Takeshitaも容疑者の一人のようです。
Though the years Mrs. Takeshita's hasband had been content to allow her to generate the family income base while he explored a number of promotional schemes designed to quickly swell the coffers. All his ventures, however, "bottomed out" sooner and deeper than anticipated, and it wasn't until he landed the job at the American Club, through Mrs. Takeshita's intercession, that his contribution to the kitty became anywhere near regular and steady. That was nine years ago. In less than a decade, due to several retirements and one unexpected death, purchasing clerk to purchasing manager. And now he wanted his wife to abandon her career.
子猫の "kitty" しか知らないので上の文に出て来る "kitty" の意味がさっぱり分かりません。　辞書を引きます。
・Cambridge Dictionaries Online: an amount of money which consists of small amounts given by different people and which is used by them for an agreed purpose: We all put ￡20 in/into the kitty to cover the cost of food.
・Macmillan Dictionary: an amount of money that is collected by a group to spend on a particular thing
この意味の語源説は幾つかあるのですが、Etymology Onlineの次の説明だけを引用しておきます。
The sense of "pool of money in a card game" first recorded 1887, probably from kit, in a sense of "collection of necessary supplies"
子猫の "kitty" しか知らなかったと言いましたが、３年前に "kitty-corner" (placed or situated diagonally Ref. http://blog.alc.co.jp/blog/3302827/archive/2008/02/17) を取り上げていました。