short-term memory problems

Reader's Digest 11月号の記事 'Laughter the Best Medicine' からの引用です。
I went to see the doctor about my short-term memory problems. The first thing he did was make me pay in advance.

患者慣れしている医者ですね。しかし、問題は、病気を治せない自信もありそうだ。

full of oneself / whitewash / score

Robert B.Parkerの "High Profile" を読んでいます。
"Weeks was going to do a full-hour commentary on his TV show about police work, and wanted to research it. I said okay. By that time the lewd-behaviour charge had sort of gone away. So I talked with him. He rode around in the cruiser with me. I liked him. He was a pretty nice guy. You know? He was interested in everything. He wasn't full of himself. He seemed to get it. He never got in the way. And finally, when he did the commentary, I liked that, too. He was fair. He didn't whitewash cops. But he didn't blackball us, either. He knew the score."

Weeksは人名です（殺されたTV番組の司会者）。上記引用文の三か所の表現と単語の意味を調べます。最初に "full of himself" の意味は：
・Oxford English Dictionary: Very self-satisfied and with an exaggerated sense of self-worth.: We were strong, arrogant and so full of ourselves.’
・Collins Dictionary: full of pride or conceit; egoistic: Bearing this in mind keeps one from getting too full of oneself.
・Farlex Dictionary of Idioms: Having an inflated view of one's importance, to the annoyance of others.: Oh, he is so full of himself! Despite what he's told you, he is not the most valuable member of our team, believe me.

次に調べるのは "whitewash" です。
・Oxford English Dictionary: A deliberate concealment of someone's mistakes or faults in order to clear their name.: ‘the opposition called the report “a whitewash”’
・Collins Dictionary: If you say that people whitewash something, you are accusing them of hiding the unpleasant facts or truth about it in order to make it acceptable.: The administration is whitewashing the regime's actions.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: an attempt to stop people finding out the true facts about a situation: The official report on the killings has been denounced as a whitewash.
黒ではなく、白色で塗り潰すのですね。　塗り潰し自体もごまかす様で、黒で塗り潰すよりもっと悪質ですね。

最後は "score" の意味を調べます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: the score informal The state of affairs; the real facts about the present situation.: Hey, what's the score here, what's goin' on?
・Collins Dictionary: the actual situation; the true facts: to know the score
・Vocabulary.com: the facts about an actual situation: “he didn't know the score”

call-ins

Robert B.Parkerの "High Profile" を読んでいます。
Jesse は殺されたWalton Weeksと以前メアリーランドのテレビ局で働いていたJay WadeにWaltonのことを質問した。
"You know," Wade said, "I don't know. When I knew him he was a damn weatherman, you know. I never thought much about him being smart or dumb. After I left Maryland, and he got to be a national figure--I mean, who knows who wrote that column or the little editorial set pieces on his TV show. He seemed quick enough on the call-ins and guest interviews."

TV業界語の様な "call-ins" の意味を辞書で調べます。

・Collins Dictionary: A call-in is a programme on radio or television in which people phone in with questions or opinions and their calls are broadcast.: ...a call-in show on Los Angeles radio station KABC.

・Cambridge English Dictionary: (of broadcasts) allowing members of the public to make their questions and opinions a part of the program: Bell hosts a popular call-in show on a local radio station.
・Merriam-Webster: allowing listeners to engage in broadcast telephone conversations with the host or a guest: a call-in show

辞書の例の様に "call-ins" の後に "show" が続いていれば意味が分かり易いですね。

work hand in glove with

Robert B.Parkerの "High Profile" を読んでいます。
"We want progress reports," Kennfield said. "We want to know every step you're taking."
"I've got everything in the department looking for the killer or killers. We haven't found him...or her...or them."
"And we want the state police involved," Kennfield said. Jesse realized the Kennfield was checking off a mental list.
"I've been in touch with the homicide commander," Jesse said.
"We want the full resources of the state brought to bear on this investigation," Kennfield said. "We want you working hand in glove with Captain Healy."
"Sure," Jesse said.

"working hand in glove" の個所の意味を調べます。
辞書に "hand in glove" の項に次の説明がありました。
・Oxford English Dictionary: In close collusion or association.: ‘they were working hand in glove with our enemies’

・Collins Dictionary: If you work hand in glove with someone, you work very closely with them.: The U.N. inspectors work hand in glove with the Western intelligence agencies.

・Cambridge English Dictionary: working together, often to do something dishonest: It was rumoured at the time that some of the gangs were working hand in glove with the police.


全ての例文が "work hand in glove with" の形になっていました。

Wordsmith

この記事もReader's Digest 11月号の 'Life in these United States' からの引用です。
He's a Wordsmith. My tow-year-old son calls beards and mustaches "face grass."
wordsmith: A skilled user of words.: ‘These wordsmiths include poets, novelists, literary critics, newspaper and magazine journalists, and many professors.’(Oxford English Dictionary)

trompe l'oeil painting

Robert B.Parkerの "High Profile" を読んでいます。
次の引用文のDixは精神科医で、Jesseはアル中の様です。
"Gee," Dix said.
Dix was quiet. The only window in the small room opened onto a budding tree against a blue sky. They looked almost like trompe l'oeil painting. When he was in this room wih Dix, everything seemed remote to Jesse.
" trompe l'oeil" は外国語の様ですが、知識人は知っている表現の様なので、英英辞書に出ているか調べます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Visual illusion in art, especially as used to trick the eye into perceiving a painted detail as a three-dimensional object.: ‘look at the pillars and arches around the immense dome—they are trompe l'oeil’

・Collins Dictionary: Trompe l'oeil is a technique used in art in which objects are painted their normal size in a very realistic way, to make people think that the objects are solid and real.: ...a trompe l'oeil painting.

・Cambridge English Dictionary: a painting that is cleverly designed to trick people into thinking that the objects represented in it are really there: He is said to have painted a trompe l'oeil of grapes which was so realistic that birds tried to peck at them.

発音も気になりますが、オンライン英英辞書は発音も聴けるので便利です。例：　Oxford English Dictionary の "trompe l'oeil" のリンクを付けて置きました。

mind the store

Robert B.Parkerの探偵小説 "High Profile" を読み始めました。これでParkerの探偵小説を読むのは4冊目です。
"Maybe more than one person involved," Perkins said.
Jesse nodded.
"ID?" Jesse said.
"None," Perkins said. "No wallet, nothing,"
Another Paradise police car pulled up with its blue light revolving, and Arther got out.
"Anyone minding the store?" Jesse said.
Angstrom was looking at the hanging corpse.
"Maguire," Angstrom said. "Suicide?"
"I wish," Jesse said.

"minding the store" の意味が分からないので辞書を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Have charge of something temporarily.: And who is minding the shop while all this is happening?

・Merriam-Webstery: to be in charge of a place when the person who is usually in charge is not there: Who's minding the store while the boss is away?

・Farlex Dictionary of Idioms: To monitor a particular place or situation, usually while someone is away.: Will you mind the store while I'm in this meeting?

"mind the shop" とも言うようだ。Oxford English Dictionaryの例文は全てshopになっていました。

Glass-Half-Full Gal

Reader's Digest 11月号の記事 'Life in these United States' からの引用です。
She's a Glass-Half-Full Gal. At a gymnastics "competition," my three-year-old was posing with her trophy. Suddenly, she tripped, and the trophy crashed, breaking in half. Everyone gasped, expecting tears. She picked it up and said, "Look! Now I have two trophies!"

対極の性格の女の子はGlass-Half-Empty Galでしょうね。

my sign

Robert B.Parkerの "Valediction"を読んでいます。
Katie said she'd heard a lot about me. I said I hoped she didn't believe most of it. We ordered a round of drinks. Katie asked me what my sign was. Hawk made a funny noise, and put his hands over his mouth and coughed.
"Down the wrong tube," he said when he stopped coughing. His eyes were very bright.
"I don't really know my sign," I said.
"I'm Virgo," she said.

最初に "Katie asked me what my sign was." と出てきた時は "sign" が何を示しているのかさっぱり見当が付きませんでしたが、その後に "I'm Virgo" と出てきたので、"Virgo" が何の星座か分かりませんが、 "sign" は占星術の星座だと推測できました。辞書で確認します。

・Oxford English Dictionary: (also zodiacal sign)Astrology Each of the twelve equal sections into which the zodiac is divided, named from the constellations formerly situated in each, and associated with successive periods of the year according to the position of the sun on the ecliptic.: a person born under the sign of Virgo

・Collins Dictionary: In astrology, a sign or a sign of the zodiac is one of the twelve areas into which the heavens are divided.: The New Moon takes place in your opposite sign of Libra on the 15th.


"zodiacal sign" なら直ぐに分かりますね。次の辞書には "birth sign" で説明がありました。
　

・Collins Dictionary: the sign of the zodiac through which the sun is passing when a person is born: What's your birth sign?

pumping iron

Robert B.Parkerの "Valediction"を読んでいます。
The anger had enlarged and was working its way up from the pit of my stomach, spreading along my back and shoulders and down my arms. I could feel my face getting hot. I was careful with my voice, easing it out so it was steady.
"This is different business," I said, "from pumping iron. It's a business I'm almost sure to be better at than you are. Don't make a mistake," The muscles in my neck and shoulders were starting to bunch on their own. My whole upper body was tense.

"pumping iron" の意味を調べます。
・Collins Dictionary: to exercise with weights; do body-building exercises: Now she spends her days pumping iron to get the biggest thighs in women's cycling.

・Wikctionary: (weightlifting, informal) The activity of weightlifting, especially for the purposes of bodybuilding.: He's just another one of Leo's thugs from the east side. Too much pumping iron jarred his brain loose!

"pumping iron" の由来がWikipediaに書かれていたので抜粋して引用します。
Pumping Iron is a 1977 American docudrama about the world of professional bodybuilding, with a focus on the 1975 IFBB Mr. Universe and 1975 Mr. Olympia competitions.
In 1975, bodybuilders are preparing for the upcoming Mr. Universe amateur competition and Mr. Olympia professional competition in Pretoria, South Africa.

...
The film then switches focus to the rivalry between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno, professional bodybuilders competing for the title of Mr. Olympia. Schwarzenegger, at this point a ten-year veteran of bodybuilding, has won Mr. Olympia for five consecutive years and intends to retire after a final competition.
シュワルツェネッガーがボディビルダーとして絶頂期の時の映画ですね。