Go figure!

桐野 夏生の "Grotesque" を読んでいます。

I couldn't tell if Zhang had heard anything I'd said. He looked bored and scratched listlessly at the edge of his mouth. The wind blew his hair back off his face and I could see he had a receding hairline. Go figure a handsome enough face but balding!

"Go figure" はいかにも口語的な表現ですが何でしょう？ I can't figure out. 辞書を見ます。

・Collins Dictionary: an expression of surprise, astonishment, wonder, etc; said to mean that you cannot explain something surprising, stupid, or hard to understand, as there seems to be a contradiction: 'It was certainly unexpected,' said Mickelson, who hadn't touched a club for two weeks before the tournament. 'I didn't hit it great today and somehow I shot 59. So go figure.'
・Cambridge English Dictionary: used when you tell someone a fact and you then want to say that the fact is surprising, strange or stupid: It's a terrible movie and it made $200 million. Go figure!

若いのに既に禿始めているのに驚いているのですか?

parity era

The Japan TimesのSeptember 22の記事を引用します。

No stars? No problem: Interest in sumo grows as it enters parity era
A widely accepted axiom is that parity in sport is generally beneficial, and something that governing bodies should always be striving to increase.
...
In an era when many more rikishi than normal have a chance at lifting silverware, having international support spread out among the contenders only helps fuel and deepen sumo’s foreign fan base.
In the long run, of course, a young and strong yokozuna needs to emerge in order to energize domestic support. But for now, parity in sumo, just as many abroad are discovering the sport, is serendipitous.

"parity" と言うと、コンピュータで使うパリティビットとかパリティチェックしか思いつかないのですが、引用した記事の内容からすると "parity era" は突出したスター不在の時代を意味している様です。辞書で確認します。 "parity" の項に次の説明があります。

・Oxford English Dictionary: the state of being equal, especially the state of having equal pay or status: In many professions women have yet to achieve anything like parity at the higher levels.
・Collins Dictionary: If there is parity between two things, they are equal.: Women have yet to achieve wage or occupational parity in many fields.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: equality, especially of pay or position: Firefighters are demanding pay parity with police.

つまり、ドングリの背比べで、皆のレベルが同じということですね

in the kitty

桐野 夏生の "Grotesque" を読んでいます。

It was close to twelve o'clock when I got back to the office. Most of the girls, resigned to a lousy take for the evening, had gone home. The only people left in the office were the dispatched and the Braid. I handed ￥10,000 to the dispatcher and put ￥1,000 in the kitty for snacks and drinks and such. All the girls who'd had customers for the night were required to do this.

文中の "kitty" は文脈からスナックや飲み物を購入する資金を仲間で集めている入れ物だと推測できます。　辞書を見ます。

・Oxford English Dictionary: (informal) if money is put in a kitty, a group of people all give an amount and the money is spent on something they all agree on: We each put £50 in the kitty to cover the bills.
・Collins Dictionary: a pool formed from part of the winnings, to pay for refreshments, etc.: There was money in the kitty.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: money to be used for a particular purpose that has been collected from a number of people: We each put $20 a week into the kitty to cover the cost of food.

"kitty" は既に2回（4/2/2012と7/22/2011）取り上げていましたね。

putty in someone's hand

桐野 夏生の "Grotesque" を読んでいます。
若い頃は超美人でスタイルも抜群だったハーフのYurikoは何故かいつの間に売春婦になってしまいました。

"We'd both changed. I got fat and Yuriko got old. We both knew all about the other's glory days. There had been a time when all Yuriko had to do was walk down the street and she'd have men tripping over themselves to get to her. They were like putty in her hands. But in later years she couldn't get a decent customer if she tried. I knew she'd lost her selling power. And I couldn't lie about it. So Yuriko grew distant. I was relieved when she stopped contacting me.

"putty" を辞書で見ると、"(like) putty in somebody’s hands" という表現があることが分かりました。

・Oxford English Dictionary: easily controlled or influenced by another person: She'll persuade him. He's like putty in her hands.
・Collins Dictionary: a person who is easily influenced or persuaded: he's putty in her hands
・Farlex Dictionary of Idioms: To be easy to control or bend to one's wishes. (Putty is a very malleable material.): She was so persuasive and flattering that I was like putty in her hands, ready to do whatever she asked.

なるほど、日本語の「手玉に取る」を連想させますね。

doff a hat

桐野 夏生の "Grotesque" を読んでいます。Yurikoを殺した容疑者の供述からの引用です。

So why did I kill her? you ask. I don't even understand it myself. Perhaps it was because she pulled the wig off her head as easily as if she were doffing a hat. The hair that emerged from between the wig was light brown flecked with white. Miss Hirata was some kind of foreigner who looked nothing like my Mei-kun!

"doffing a hat" は帽子を脱ぐ意味のようですが、辞書で確認します。

・Oxford English Dictionary: Take off or raise (one's hat) as a greeting or token of respect.: ‘the manager doffed his hat to her’
・Collins Dictionary: to take off or lift (one's hat) in salutation: Somehow he managed to compose himself sufficiently to doff his hat to her and to say most civilly, `My lady, how nice to see you.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to remove your hat, usually to show respect: She also doffed the masculine top hat or bowler and donned a tiny feather-trimmed hat.
挨拶として帽子を持ち上げる意味もあるのですね。上記最後の辞書の例文で分かるように "doff" は "don"　の対語ですね。