6月 27 2008
今天是布朗担任英国首相一周年，然而新闻头条却是工党如何在英格兰地区 Henley 的议会议员补选中，如何被羞辱，“lost the deposit”。
参加英国议会议员选举，担任候选人，除了需要10个当地选区选民签字提名外，还需要事先缴纳500镑押金。如果在选举中得票太低，押金则不能收回。这种做法是让担任候选人有一定的严肃性，虽然还是不能防止这次有头戴香蕉的独立候选人参选。至于如何界定“得票太低”，标杆是低于总选票的5%。
Henley 是传统保守党重镇，工党原来就没报任何希望，但是工党的候选人Richard McKenzie最后只得到1066张选票，甚至排在极右政党BNP后面，仅仅得到3%选票，丢了500镑的押金。
所以用 lost the deposit，最形象地形容了布朗领导下的工党的窘境。中文中其实有一句同样形象，但更加刻薄、不太友好的话：“把裤子都输光了”。
6月 21 2008
ITV 的 Jon Champion 今晚解说 Euro2008 四分之一决赛荷兰对俄罗斯。当 Van Nistelrooy 85 分钟为荷兰扳平时，他喊道：
The orange is bright again, and has a future!
然而荷兰的 future 只持续了 20 分钟，当加时赛结束，荷兰 1:3 失利时，他又说：
Tonight in Basel, orange faded into black.
5月 27 2008
《卫报》驻北京记者 Tania Branigan 5 月 13 日从都江堰发回的报道，刊登在 14 日的头版。这是第一二段：
Tenderly, she eased the clean fleece over her little boy’s hand and up around his plump shoulder. The steady rain washing the town’s streets had chilled the usually warm Sichuan weather.
He didn’t look alarmed or frightened but dirt and blood were caked on his forehead. She touched his hair and then they pulled up the zipper on the bodybag and carried him away. Only her husband marked her howls.
5月 08 2008
Simon Hattenstone on Iván Campo:
The spaniard does not just look like a pub footballer, he looks like a pub footballer who has sunk 14 pints with William Hague on a Friday night, gone down the rankest curry house for chicken vindaloo and chips, missed the last bus home, slept on a park bench, not washed and turned up at the Reebok, 2.55pm on the Saturday, to play for Bolton Wanderers.
Somehow I can’t find this article the Guardian website (was published on 30 April 2008).
pub footballer: 相对于 professional footballer，有“乌合之众”之意。
14 pints with William Hague: 前保守党党魁 William Hague 有一次为显示自己并非脱离劳动大众，称自己年轻时打工运送啤酒到酒吧，按规矩每次酒吧都会请搬运工喝一杯(pint)啤酒，并称他最多一天可以送14个酒吧。于是并传成“年轻时每天喝14杯啤酒”(14 pint Hague)。
rank: adj. Strong and offensive in odor or flavor.
chicken vindaloo and chips: 去印度餐馆吃 chips 是改造的吃法。
Reebok: Bolton Wanderers 的主场。
2.55pm on the Saturday: 英超足球比赛的正常开赛时间是周六下午3点。
4月 20 2008
Giles Coren 是 The Times 的餐馆评论员和专栏作者，我很喜欢他的幽默笔锋。星期六在 The Times 上看到他写的文章，说自他父亲最近去世后，他一度觉得没有再写的必要，因为已经 no one to impress。他的父亲是幽默作家 Alan Coren。文章中的一段写道：
As I pushed his mower up and down his lawn I realised my mother was watching me. I dropped the lever and called to her, over the whiz of the fading blades: “I can hear him now shouting, You call that a f****** stripe?’.” And she said, “No, he’d be very pleased.”
4月 02 2008
Michael White uses the analogy to tell us what they are like:
If Mrs Thatcher was matron and John Major that nice bus conductor on the No 63, Tony Blair was an upmarket estate agent. But Brown is a hellfire preacher whose media handlers have told him to go easy on the hellfire stuff because it reduces the Sunday collection.
matron: A woman who acts as a supervisor or monitor in a public institution, such as a school, hospital, or prison.
hellfire: Portending future disaster
3月 24 2008
Simon Hoggart described the strangeness of last week’s Prime Minister’s Question Times (PMQ) in the Guardian:
It was a question time full of jollity. David Cameron floored Gordon Brown by agreeing with him. In private they probably concur on many things, but it doesn’t do to say so in front of the children, so this came as a surprise.
他用了两个比喻，floored 和 in front of the childre，形象地解释了 PMQ 的意义。
Prime Minister’s Question Time (PMQ) 是英国首相每周一次来到议会辩论厅，面对全体议员回答问题的时刻。PMQ 的作用，让我想起我们看古代演义小说时，常出现的两军对阵，主将出马单挑的情形。如果一方主将被“斩于马下”，马上全军“阵脚大乱”、“望风而逃”。当然我们知道仗不是这么打的，将军们只要坐阵指挥，无需单挑比武功。但是演义小说如果没了武将单挑，便少了一大乐趣，现代政治也是一样。于是 PMQ 虽然名义上是给予所有议员质询首相的机会，但看点其实是反对党领袖如何单挑首相，连回合都规定好了，有6次机会。上周 David Cameron 把布朗打翻在地 (floored)，保守党这边自然是“旌旗招展”、欢声雷动。
Simon Hoggart 接着又用反喻，把 PMQ 比作夫妻吵架－－原应回避孩子们，但 PMQ 时，众议员们象是一群习惯了父母吵架的孩子，看着父母和和睦睦反而莫明其妙了。
It doesn’t do 是一种因为老式而有趣味的表达方法。在 BBC 的古装剧 Cranford 中，古板的 Deborah 就爱用这种表达方法，特别是当她觉得某种行为不合礼仪的时候。
3月 06 2008
I saw this on the Guardian sport page and quite like the funny expression:
As this Milan side ages, visitors have become like relatives who look at the household belongings such as the Campions League and wonder how soon they might inherit them.
However, when I looked at the same article by Kevin McCarra on Guardian’s website, the sentence became:
It was as if they had come to the home of their ageing relatives and could not stop themselves from stealing a look at valuable belongings, such as Champions League silverware, that they might soon inherit.
Don’t know which is the early version though.
2月 27 2008
今天早晨几个抗议者爬上议会大厦屋顶，挂起横幅，投下纸飞机，在屋顶上向媒体打手机接受采访。警察也不用强，耐心劝导抗议者自动“下台”。
这已经不是第一次有抗议者爬上议会大厦，为今天的抗议增加一点意味的是，当3个抗议者还在议会大厦屋顶的时候，首相布朗来到议会大厦，照常出席每周三的 Prime Minister’s Question Time。
Gordon Brown:
The message should go out today clearly that decisions in this country should be made in the Chamber of this House and not on the roof of this House.
这是Gordon Brown 在 PMQ 上迄今最为精彩的一句。
2月 23 2008
如果要形容某件工作反反复复，总也做不完，你可以说 It’s like painting the Forth Bridge.
Forth Bridge，又叫 Forth Rail Bridge，是指爱丁堡城北 Forth 河(Firth of Forth)上的铁路桥。铁路桥建成于1890年，已近120岁，目前每天仍然有200趟火车经过，是英国人引以为豪的工程杰作。桥梁的大部份结构是钢，传说中等到把桥梁全部油漆一遍之后，前面的已经褪色，就又得开始重新油漆了，所以 paint the Forth Bridge 成为英国俗语。
最近负责维护 Forth Bridge 的公司发布新闻，说将采用新型油漆，保证30年不褪，所以得另找词汇代替 paint the Forth Bridge 了。
BBC documentary: Britain’s Best Buildings – The Forth Bridge
