in-your-face

Robert B.Parkerの "Sixkill" を読んでいます。
in-your-face red running shoes was running the stairs of the stadium.

ZはJumbo Nelsonの元用心棒であったZebulon Sixkillの事です。引用文の後半に出て来たランニングシューズの形容詞として使われている "in-your-face" の意味が分かりません。辞書を見ます。

・Oxford English Dictionary: Blatantly aggressive or provocative; impossible to ignore or avoid.: hard-boiled, in-your-face action thrillers

・Collins Dictionary: Someone who has an in-your-face attitude seems determined to behave in a way that is unusual or shocking, and does not care what people think of them.: [informal] It's in-your-face feminism, and it's meant to shock.

・Cambridge English Dictionary: shocking and annoying in a way that is difficult to ignore: dance music that is aggressive, sexy, and in your face
とにかく無視できないほどの物のようですね。
先日地下鉄で私の前方の座っていた女性がなにか大きなカードを首に掛けていました。文字が書かれていたので読むと、［睨んでも私はマスクをしません］と書かれていて、その女性はマスクをしていませんでした。女性はマスクをしていないのを無視して欲しいのでしょうが、そのカードは無視できない程大きなものでした。

squirrels

日本では余り野生のリスを見かけることはありませんが、米国では、何十年も前ですが、住んだことのあるシカゴやニュージャージーの住宅街でもよく見かけたし、NYのマンハッタンの公園でもよく見かけました。　小さくて可愛らしい動物ですが、日本人が雀を特に可愛い小鳥と思わないように、米国人はどうもリスを可愛いとは余り思っていないという印象がありました。　その事を裏付けるような記述がReader's Digest 12/1月合併号の記事 'New Ruls of Laundry' にありました。

New Rule #7: Skip the fabric softners
I hate fabric softners and dryer sheets, and you should too. In fact, I hate them more than squirrels and mosquitoes.
...

リスが蚊と同じように嫌いとはちょっと驚きです。

penultimate

The Japantimesの2月20日の記事に懐かしい単語を見かけました。その記事と冒頭の文を引用します。

Organizers scramble as weather disrupts penultimate day of Beijing Games
Organizers scrambled to reorganize the Alpine mixed team parallel race for the final day of the Beijing Olympics after high winds on Saturday forced the competition to be postponed.

十五年以上前の事ですが、米国のメーカーとの契約の交渉で弁護士は契約書の特定の文言の場所を示す時によく "penultimate line" を使うので覚えました。最後から２番目を示す堅い感じの単語なので小説で見かけることはほとんどありませんね。

・Oxford English Dictionary: Last but one in a series of things; second last.: ‘the penultimate chapter of the book’

・Collins Dictionary: The penultimate thing in a series of things is the last but one.: on the penultimate day of the Asian Games.

・Cambridge English Dictionary: second from the last: It's the penultimate episode of the series tonight.

byelingual

Reader's Digest 12/1月合併号の記事欄外に出ていた愉快な文言です。
Adios y auf Wiedersehen
When you speak two languages and start losing vocabulary in both: byelingual.

日本語も時々怪しくなって来たので実感できる文言です。 "Byelingual"!

honey wagon

Robert B.Parkerの "Sixkill" を読んでいます。映画の撮影現場の描写から引用します。

There were equipment trucks, lights, trailers, honey wagons, mobile homes, a craft-services truck, some cars, extras, grips, best boys,, script girls, assistant directors, production assistants, a detail cop, and a mare's nest of cables. Some spectators had gathered behind the barriers, and as I walked down into that scene, a limousine pulled up onto the corner of Tremont Street, and Jubo Nelson, dressed like a street person, got out and walked slowly into the subway. A director yelled, "Cut!"

業界用語的な言葉が続いていますが、"honey wagons" は何か全く見当が付きません。辞書を見ます。
・Wiktionary: (film, television) A type of multi-room trailer with toilet facilities for use by film and television crews.
一語で "honeywagon" と綴られる場合もあるようです。
・Wikipedia: (Use in film and television industry) A honeywagon is a portable toilet unit used in the film and television industry. Many take the form of a specialized semi-trailer.
In the UK a honeywagon usually refers to a set of toilets used by the cast and crew. These come in all shapes and sizes - either trailer-base or built into the box body of a truck. In America, the term honeywagon is usually given to a truck, trailer or combination of both with a number of dressing rooms for the actor. These either have individual toilets or a communal set built in. Some honeywagons will be just two large toilets. Others are a combination of variously sized rooms for specific purposes: these rooms can be private dressing rooms assigned to a single person, larger rooms configured for the wardrobe, or makeup departments, small individual toilets for the crew to share, and multiple user or individual shower rooms for bathing.

婉曲表現なのでしょうが、推測できませんでした。

rim shot

先日 "rim shot" の表現について "rim shot" が使われているReader's Digestの記事を引用すると言いましたが、記事をメモする前に本を図書館に返してしまったので記事を紹介できません。
しかしながら、 "rim shot" は面白い表現なので英英辞書の説明文を紹介します。

・Merriam-Webster: a drum beat in which the shaft of the drumstick strikes the rim of the drum at the same time that the tip of the stick strikes the head; especially : such a beat used to draw attention to the humor or pointedness of a preceding statement: When I would tell a joke in middle school in the '80s, I would swing my arm to the left the way he did. Of course, he did it to signal to the band for a rim shot. I had no band when I was walking around in seventh grade.
・American Heritage Dictionary: A quick, abrupt drumroll followed by such a sound or by the striking of a cymbal, often used for emphasis after the punchline of a joke told by a comedian
・Wikitionary: (colloquial) A percussive sting or flourish used to punctuate a joke in a cabaret or vaudeville act.

no cigar

"smoke and mirrors" の語源について解説しているThe Word Detectiveの記事を引用します。

Dear Word Detective: "Smoke and mirrors" means to distort the truth? I heard that it originated from carnies, having to do with tricks of the circus. -- Kody Laurentia.
Close, but no cigar. Anybody got a spare rim shot?

"no cigar" の意味を調べます。辞書では "close, but no cigar" の表現として説明があります。
・Merriam-Webster: used to say that a guess was almost correct or that an effort was almost sufficient: What country jails the most journalists? If you guessed China, you were close, but no cigar.
・Wiktionary: Used to indicate that one is almost correct or has almost succeeded, but not quite.: Betty ran all out in the sprint race; yet, it was close, but no cigar.
Etymology: Apparently from the practice of giving cigars as prizes at carnivals in the United States in the 20th century; those who did not win would fail to receive a cigar, even if they came close.
・Farlex Dictionary of Idioms: cliché A phrase said when one is almost correct or successful but ultimately fails. Cigars were once commonly used as prizes or awards.: A: "Is the answer 73?" B: "Ooh, close, but no cigar. It's 75, actually."

葉巻が景品とは、ノースモーキングが当たり前になってきた現在では考えられない賞品ですね。

Three Patients

Reader's Digest 12/1月合併号の記事 'Laughter The Best Medicine' からの引用です。

Three patients are sitting in a psychiatrist's waiting room.
The first patient asks the second, "Why are you here?"
He answers, "I'm Napoleon, so the doc told me to come in."
"How do you know you're Napoleon?"
"God told me I was."
The third patient puts down his cell phone and shouts, "No, I didn't."

smoke and mirrors

Robert B.Parkerの探偵小説 "Sixkill" を読み始めました。これでParkerの探偵小説を読むのは5冊目。最初の引用は主人公のSpencerが被害者の兄弟に質問をしているところからです。
"So how's school?" I said.
"Everybody thinks Harvard is so hard. It's no harder than anyplace else. All you got to do is study."
"Which you do," I said.
"Enough to get by," he said.
"It engages you," I said.
"Yeah," he said. "Economics is pretty interesting. I mean, the whole deal with money. Money is something we've made up, you know, because barter is clumsy... It's smoke and mirrors."
"I've always suspected as much," I said. "Can we talk about your sister?"

"smoke and mirrors" は既に（3/17/2016）取り上げましたが、語源が気になり、調べるとThe Word Detectiveに次の説明がありました。少し長いのですが、全文を引用します。

Dear Word Detective: "Smoke and mirrors" means to distort the truth? I heard that it originated from carnies, having to do with tricks of the circus. -- Kody Laurentia.
Close, but no cigar. Anybody got a spare rim shot? You know, this column would have been much more fun as a vaudeville show. Maybe it's not too late. I have some dancing dogs, after all, not to mention a cat named Gus who climbs up on his Kitty Kondo every evening and chases his tail for twenty minutes at a time. And if that doesn't sound like quality entertainment to you, you clearly don't live in rural Ohio.
"Smoke and mirrors" does indeed mean a distortion of the truth, specifically the use of deception, distraction and illusion to convince and manipulate. "Smoke and mirrors" is commonly used in a political context, often by one side to describe the plans and statements of their opponents, although anyone who has ever bought a used car has also probably encountered a barrage of "smoke and mirrors." To say that someone's argument or proclamation is "smoke and mirrors" is to say that it lacks substance and is deliberately deceptive, using fancy footwork and glib patter to disguise the fact that what is being sold is a dud.
The allusion in "smoke and mirrors" is to a magician's stage act, particularly during a dramatic trick such as pulling a rabbit from a hat or sawing a volunteer in half. The climax of such stunts is usually accompanied by some sort of flourish, be it a puff of smoke or a simple "Voila!", that serves to distract the audience. The trick itself may depend on the clever placement of mirrors to make the impossible appear a fait accompli.
But while the reference is to magic, "smoke and mirrors" was coined in the political context, by the great (notwithstanding his strange antipathy toward dogs) New York City newspaper columnist Jimmy Breslin. In his 1975 book "How the Good Guys Finally Won, Notes from an Impeachment Summer," Breslin wrote, "All political power is primarily an illusion. Mirrors and blue smoke, beautiful blue smoke rolling over the surface of highly polished mirrors, first a thin veil of blue smoke, then a thick cloud that suddenly dissolves into wisps of blue smoke, the mirrors catching it all, bouncing it back and forth. ... If somebody tells you how to look, there can be seen in the smoke great, magnificent shapes, castles and kingdoms, and maybe they can be yours."

言葉に詳しい人なので表現も多彩ですね。この説明文の前半に出てきた "no cigar" と "rim shot"
も気になる表現ですね。"no cigar" は次回、 "rim shot" は最近読んだReader's Digestにも出てきたので、その記事と共に取り上げます。

never accepting blame for anything

Reader's Digest 12/1月合併号の記事 'Life in these United States' からの引用です。

One of my boys had a habit of never accepting blame for anything. I mean anything. Once, when he was a toddler, he had an accident in his pants. He pointed to his brother and shouted, "Mark did it!"

将来大物の政治家になれそうだ。