adulation

Reader's Digest３月号の記事 Confessions of a Courierは宅配便の仕事に従事している人の告白です。
梱包箱の上に "Fragile" などと書かれていても、業務に携わっている作業者は全く気にしていないと書いた後の文です。
I'm in my trailer for up to four hours at a time, surrouded by brown. Anything that stands out can brighten my day. So if you want your package handled a little more tenderly, give it to your small child and let him or her write on it in crayon. I'm not about to smash a package that belongs to some kid. I see all the crayon scribbles and poorly spelled adulation for Mum or Grandpa, and all I can picture is a toddler sending a beloved teddy bear to Grandma because she has only days to live.
子供でも知っている "adulation" を私は知りません。困ったものですが、しかたがないので辞書を引きます。
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: excessive or slavish admiration or flattery: The rugby player enjoyed the adulation of his fans.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: very great admiration or praise for someone, especially when it is more than is deserved: As a born performer, she loves the excitement and she loves the adulation.
Vocabulary.comに "adulation" を覚えるのに良いヒントが書かれていました。
If you've ever been to a pop concert filled with screaming fans you've probably been exposed to adulation — praise so over-the-top it's almost embarrassing.
The Latin word adulatio means "flattery." It's made up of the roots ad ("to") and ulos ("tail"), and if you're thinking of a dog wagging its tail to and fro to get a treat from its owner, you're on the right track. As anyone who's seen a crazed fan drooling over a celebrity knows, adulation is one of the more doglike of human behaviors.
"adulation" で犬が喜んで尻尾を振っているのを連想できると良いのですね。

off-kilter

The Power of Habitを読んでいると、The Great Sanriku Tsunami 1933 March 3 Tsunami and Usという章がありました。そこからの文を引用します。
At the very least, the mental state of the members of a household might get a bit off-kilter when their lives have been upset.
"off-kilter" は見覚えがありますが、忘れているので辞書を引きます。
・McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs: Lit. out of balance; crooked or tilted. (*Typically: be ~; get ~; knock something ~.) John, your tie is sort of off-kilter. Let me fix it. Please straighten the picture on the wall. It's out of kilter.
・Merrium-Webster: eccentric, unconventional: off-kilter characters: an off-kilter approach
・Urban Dictinary: It means that something's just not right. Off balance. It's not all there.: She suddenly started laughing for no reason. She's a bit off kilter.
思い出しました。"off-kilter" は "9/2/2013" に取り上げていました。

provenance

Reader's Digestには必ず健康や食べ物についての記事があります。"produce" に農産物の意味があるのを知ったのもReader's Digestの記事からでした。次の文は３月号のFuture Food Trendsと題された記事からの抜粋です。
Increasingly, consumers want to know exactly how and where their food was produced. While small and boutique suppliers can usually tell you their produce's exact provenance , traceability schemes now allow supermarket consumers the same details using QR (quick response) codes on packaging. Shoppers use smartphones to access information about the origin of each product.
上の文にでてきた "provenance" の意味は文脈から生産地の意味だと推測できますが、初めて見る単語なので、この際辞書で確認して覚えたい。
・Cambridge English Dictionary: the place of origin of something: jewels of uncertain provenance: This raised doubts about the provenance of the painting.
・Vocabulary.com: where something originated or was nurtured in its early existence
Where something comes from is its provenance. If a style of music originated in the capital of Rhode Island, you could say that its provenance was Providence.
Some items of foreign provenance are taxed more heavily than domestic products. If you claim that an artwork put up for sale was stolen from your family's art collection, an investigation may be ordered to resolve issues of provenance. In this case, provenance refers to who has the legal right to the specific work of art, or to whom it belongs.

wither on the vine

今日も「英語で楽しむ寺田寅彦」に出てきた慣用句を取り上げます。
Suppose there arises a rumor that a major earthquake will strike at three o'clock tomorrow morning. If, say, thirty percent of the influential men in the neighborhood know for certain that such precise earthquake prediction is still impossible, the number will wither on the vine.
"wither on the vine" は単に "wither" でも通じるようですが、"wither on the vine" が慣用句であることを辞書で確認します。
・Cambridge Dictionaries Online: If something withers on the vine, it is destroyed very gradually, usually because no one does anything to help or support it: There was some debate as to whether the benefit scheme should be withdrawn or simply allowed to wither on the vine.
・American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms: Fail to come to fruition, as in This building project will wither on the vine if they don't agree on a price. This expression alludes to grapes shriveling and drying up because they were not picked when ripe.

The Barber System

A man walks into a barbershop and asks, "How much for a haircut?" "Twelve dollars," says the barber. "And for a shave?" "Ten dollars." "All right," says the man, settling into the barber chair. "Shave my head."
髪の毛がふさふさしている人も、ほとんどない人も同じ散髪料金は確かに不公平な気がします。

miffed

The Power of Habitに書かれていた逸話からです。Paul O'NeillがAlcoaのCEOとして就任し、安全第一を社是のモットーにしたことは周りを驚かせます。
Wall Street was still panicked. The unions were concerned. Some of Alcoa's vice presidents were miffed at being passed over for the top job. And O'Neil kept talking about safety.
"miffed" は "1/13/2011" に取り上げた単語です。（Oxford English Dictionary: annoyed at someone's behaviour towards you; She hadn't phoned for a week and I was getting quite miffed.）

not give a rat's tooth

図書館で「英語で楽しむ寺田寅彦」を見つけました。高校生あるいは大学生の頃だと記憶していますが、寺田寅彦の随筆、そしてその弟子の中谷宇吉郎の随筆を読んで気に入った事を思い出しましたので借りて読むことにしました。取り上げる随筆を選んだのは松下貢氏で、和文英訳は米国人のTom Gally氏です。この本は学生、科学者が寺田寅彦の様に英文で随筆を書く為の参考書にもなっているので訳文の解説が詳しいので直ぐに読み終えてしまいましたが、その中から覚えたいあるいは興味を覚えた表現、単語を幾つかとりあげます。
Even the Japanese spirit, which has been passed down over two millennia, is now, through the efforts of many, being crushed and fed to the dogs of barbarism. No one gives a rat's tooth now for messages from previous generations.
上に出てきた "No one gives a rat's tooth" は日本語の「歯牙にもかけない」を直ぐに連想させる表現ですが、辞書での説明を見ます。
・Urban Dictinary: 'I don't give a rats ass' is a similar phrase to 'I don't give a shit'. This basicaly means that the person who uses these words doesn't care about the circumstance whatsover. Literally,it means the person doesn't care about that situation even to the extent of a rats ass!: What do you expect me to do? I don't give a rats ass about it!
・TheFreeDictionary: not give a rat's ass (rude): to not care at all Frankly, I don't give a rat's ass about
"don't give a rat's ass" は品が悪いので "No one gives a rat's tooth" にしたと訳者のTom Gally氏は説明しています。

kondo your English

The Japan Times Online 2015/03/25に "Frenemies, screenagers, kidults--kondo your English with these trending terms"　と題されたトレンディーな英語についての記事がありました。長いのでその一部を抜粋して下記に紹介します。
Age identified teens who are always looking at their iPads, video games and smartphones as screenagers.
...
But the line between screenager and adult is more blurred than ever before, as the terms kidult, rejuvenile and adultescent are increasingly used to refer to grown-ups who like things traditionally intended for children, such as cartoons, toys, computer games and -- yep -- even Disney movies (gotcha!).
...the word transgenerational theft to describe the tendency to take from the young and employed (taxes, benefits, etc.) to pay the debts of the old (pensions, health care, etc.)
...
The Economist described U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “frenemies,” meaning enemies disguised as friends.
...
Lastly, according to the WSJ, a Japanese word has recently entered the American lexicon. That word is kondo, and the moniker of the author of the best-selling “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” is used as a verb to mean “purging or meticulous folding.”
...according to the article you can kondo your garage (tidy it up), kondo your dresser drawers (fold and neaten everything) or kondo your closet (get rid of anything you haven’t worn in the past year).
"kondo" は片付けコンサルタントの近藤 麻理恵さんの苗字から来た言葉とはびっくり、ネイティブでもこんな新語を知っている人はよほど流行に目ざとい方でしょう。
この記事の全文を読みたい方は次のURLに行って下さい。"http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2015/03/25/our-lives/frenemies-screenagers-kidults-kondo-english-trending-terms/#.VRSMIZWJg5t"
追記　この原稿を書いたのは４月の初めですが、その後４月１７日の朝日新聞朝刊で近藤麻理恵さんが 米タイム誌の「世界で最も影響のある１００人」に選ばれたと報じていました。

on the line

The Power of Habitから最後の引用です。
"We would practice, and everything would come together and then we'd get to a big game and it was like the training disappeared," Dungy told me. "Afterward, my players would say, 'Well, it was a critical play and I went back to what I knew,' or 'I felt like I had to step it up.' What they were really saying was they trusted our system most of the time, but when everything was on the line, that belief broke down.
"on the line" の個所が分かりそうで分かりません。辞書で意味を調べます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: At serious risk: their careers were on the line
・Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms: at risk of failing or being harmed There's a lot of pride on the line when your book is published.
・Wiktionary: (idiomatic) At risk, as in a contest or enterprise. The survival of the company is on the line with this project.
綱渡りをしている状況を連想して覚えよう。

Friday night bender

The Power of Habitを読んでいます。下記の引用文のAAはAlcoholics Anonymous（アルコール中毒者更生会）のことです。
In order to offer alcoholics the same rewards they get at a bar, AA has built a system of meetings and companionship--the "sponsor" each member works with--that strives to offer as much escape, distraction, and catharsis as a Friday night bender.
"Friday night bender" は文脈からして金曜の夜の（大）酒飲みだと容易に分かります。
"bender" は見覚えがありますが、忘れています。調べると "9/22/2011" に慣用句 "on the bender" (a wild drinking spree/hungover after a weekend bender）を取り上げていました。