WORST POSSIBLE RESPONSE

We were in a restaurant, perusing the menu, when I let my husband know that he rarely paid attention to me when I spoke. Well, of course he disagree, so we went back to reading our menus in chilly silence. After a few uncomfortable minutes, I said, "I think I'm getting a headache."
He responded: "Go ahead, sweetheart; get whatever you want."
(from Reader's Digest July Issue）

quarry

Zoobiquityを読んでいます。下の引用箇所に出てきた "quarry" は 1/31/2014 に取り上げましたが、大学受験の頃に覚えた余り役に立たない意味の採石場が邪魔をしてなかなか記憶できなかったのですが、John Grishamの小説に度々出てきたのでやっと覚えられました。
Suddenly, with an expert forehand swing he'll swipe a wood-handled net through a stand of reeds or burlrushes. (The move, he explains, is similar to a lacrosse catch or a tennis stroke, which is why he likes to hire grad students who've played thest sports before.) Nipping the mesh shut with his free hand, he'll peek inside to see if he captured his quarry: Libellula pulchella, the twelve-spotted skimmer dragonfly.

imbroglio

The Japan Times ９月１４日の記事の抜粋です。
America should exit the Korean imbroglio
A U.S. withdrawal from South Korea would undercut Pyongyang's justification for its massive military spending.
...
The United States should try a different approach. Washington should withdraw from the Korean vortex. Then North Korea would be primarily a problem for its neighbors, who have the most at stake.
タイトルに出てきた単語 "imbroglio" は以前(4/18/2013)に取り上げていますが、復習で辞書を見直します。
・Oxford English Dictionary: An extremely confused, complicated, or embarrassing situation: the Watergate imbroglio
・Vocabulary.com: An imbroglio is a complicated or confusing personal situation. To rephrase the J. Geils band song, "Love Stinks," if you love her and she loves him and he loves somebody else, you've got quite an imbroglio.
Although an imbroglio is a tangled situation or a messy complicated misunderstanding, its history is just the opposite, clear as a bell. Imbroglio is just a borrowed word from Italian meaning "entanglement." If something embarrassing happens at a public event, such as a mishap during the musical performances at the Super Bowl, it is sometimes called an imbroglio.
以前この単語を取り上げたのも北朝鮮に関する記事からでした。 "imbroglio" が出てきたら直ぐに北朝鮮を連想することにします。

keep hours by appointment

John GrishamのThe Brethrenから取り上げる最後の表現です。
There was no Jack Argrow, Attorney-at-Law, in the Boca Raton yellow pages, and this initially caused concern. Finn Yarber frantically worked the unsecured phone, seeking directory assistance all over South Florida. When he asked for Pompano Beach, the operator said, "One moment, please," and Finn actually smiled. He scribbled down the number, then dialed it. A recorded voice said, "You've reached the law offices of Jack Argrow. Mr. Argrow keeps hours by appointment only, so please leave your name and number and a brief description of the real estate you're interested in, and we'll get in touch with you."
"keeps hours by appointment" の意味は辞書を引かなくても分かります。しかし、英英辞書を引くのが習性になってしまったので、辞書でこの表現の確認をしたかったのですが、この表現を掲載している辞書は見つかりませんでした。とは言うものの、この表現はGoogleで調べると容易に確認できるように、ごく一般的な表現である事は間違いありません。次の様な例がネット上で容易に見つかります。
・We keep hours by appointment between 9AM and 6PM. There is a $50 charge for earlier or later arrivals/returns. Please make arrangements ahead of time.
・I keep hours by appointment at my office in a medical office building on Hobson Road in Woodridge, IL.
・Great staff, quick appointments. Dentist and hygienist were thorough and very sympathetic. No problem getting an appointment, and they keep hours that work for my schedule.

pull it off

John GrishamのThe Brethrenを読んでいます。刑務所には持ち込めないはずの携帯電話をArgrowは持っていました。
"I have a brother in Boca Raton. The phone and the service were gifts from him." He snapped it back smartly, and it vanished before their eyes. Then he pointed to the small conference room behind them, to their chamber. "What's in there?" he asked.
"Just a conference room," Spicer said.
"It has no windows, right?"
"None, except for that small one in the door."
"All right. What if I go in there, get on the phone, and go to work.You three stay here and watch out for me. If anyone enters the library, come knock on the door."
The Brethren readily agreed, though they did not believe Argrow could pull it off.
最後に出てきた慣用句らしき表現 "pull it off" の意味を辞書で調べます。
・McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs: to manage to make something happen. Yes, I can pull it off. Do you think you can pull off this deal?
・Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms: to succeed in doing something difficult or unexpected He won five straight games and pulled off one of the tournament's biggest upsets. I don't know how you pulled it off, but we're now $5,000 richer than we were yesterday.
英語は単語も多いし、この手の慣用句も沢山あって厄介です。

Let's cut to the chase

今日取り上げる "Let's cut to the chase" は何かの英会話テキストで見たことはありますが、実際の会話で聞いた経験はありません。John GrishamのThe Brethrenを読んでいるとこの表現が次の様に出てきました。
Argrow was overcome with smugness and insider knowledge, so he stood rather dramatically and walked around the small library for a moment, deep in thought, then moved closer to the table again. "Look, what do you guys want me to do? Let's cut to the chase."
意味を辞書で復習します。
・Collins Dictionary: If someone cuts to the chase, they start talking about or dealing with what is important, instead of less important things. ⇒ Hi everyone, we all know why we are here today, so let's cut to the chase.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to talk about or deal with the important parts of a subject and not waste time with things that are not important: I didn't have long to talk so I cut to the chase and asked whether he was still married.
同様の表現に "get to the point"、"get down to business"、"get down to brass tacke" などがありますが、"get down to brass tacke" 以外の表現は知らなくても意味は直ぐに分かりますね。

takeaway/zinger/trumped-up

米国大統領候補のヒラリー・クリントンとドナルド・トランプの最初の直接対決についてのThe Japan Times９月２８日の記事を読みました。
Takeaways of the first 2016 U.S. presidential debate: Trump’s temperament, Clinton’s zingers
上記の記事タイトルに気になる単語が二つ（"takeaway"と"zinger"）ありましたが、とりあえず本文を読みます。
...
Here are the top takeaways from Monday’s debate:
...
Clinton’s zingers
Often delivered with a smile, Clinton came prepared with pithy lines that undercut Trump’s case on the economy. In an early exchange, Clinton said Trump would push for “trickle-down” tax cuts that would only benefit the wealthy, calling it, “trumped-up trickle-down.” When Trump got in a dig at Clinton’s absence from the campaign trail, she said there was nothing wrong with spending time preparing for the debate. “You know what else I did?” she asked. “I prepared to be president.”
"takeaway" は英国英語で米語の "take-out" と同じ意味を持っていることは知っていましたが、この記事の例のように討論の結果にも使えるのは知りませんでした。辞書で確認します。
・Cambridge English Dictionary: mainly US a main message or piece of information that you learn from something you hear or read: The takeaway from the conference was how competitive the tourism industry has become.
・Wiktionary: (frequently plural) An idea from a talk, presentation, etc., that the listener or reader should remember and consider.
"zinger" の意味は記事を読むと分かるように、ヒラリーの気の利いた受け答えの事だと分かります。
・Oxford English Dictionary: A striking or amusing remark.: open a speech with a zinger
・Macmillan Dictionary: a quick and clever remark that makes someone who you are arguing with feel embarrassed
ヒラリーのトランプに対する批判のなかで "trumped-up" という言葉を使っていますが、これはトランプ氏の名前をなぞっていると推測できますが、その肝心な意味を知らないので、これも辞書で確認します。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Invented as an excuse or a false accusation.: he was arrested on trumped-up charges
・Collins Dictionary: untrue, and made up in order to punish someone unfairly ⇒ He had been imprisoned on a trumped-up charge.
勉強になる記事でした。

COURTROOM CLASH

A defendant isn't happy with how things are going in court, so he gives the judge a hard time.
Judge: "Where do you work?"
Defendant: "Here and there."
Judge: "What do you do for a living?"
Defendant: "This and that."
Judge: "Take him away."
Defendant: "Wait, when will I get out?"
Judge: "Sooner or later."
(from Reader's Digest July Issue）

scarf

図書館から借りて読む本の合間に読むZoobiquityを読んでいます。
Yet biologists who've spent careers studying them say that these preferential vegetrians will wolf down raw meat given the slightest opportunity. So will chipmunks and squirrels, who are vegetarian except when they are lactating; then they become not only carnivores but cannibals, eagerly scarfing down road-killed kin.
"wolf down" は "7/27/2008" に、"scarfing" は "4/9/2011" に "Big Mac-scarfing" で取り上げました。