Play With Words

G20伦敦峰会在伦敦东郊的ExCel会议中心举行。这里是原来的伦敦港口码头(Dockland)，已经离伦敦市中心很远了，周围也很荒凉。《卫报》记者Simon Hoggart 在他的文章中把这个地方形容为 dark side of the moon – 无人居住，不见天日。

This summit took place on the dark side of the moon.

We…were ushered into a series of buses, swept past driverless trains, deserted roundabouts, abandoned building sites, empty docks, with not a single human being visible except for groups of police, holding back nobody.

《泰晤士报》记者 Ann Treneman (她和 Simon Hoggart 一样，正职都是“议会写生员” – parliament stretch writer，专门描写议会活动的) 没有直接写会议中心周围的景物，而是说：

The best way to explain the ExCel centre is to imagine a giant tin can on its side. We could not see out, which, given the view, may not have been such a bad thing.

举行多边首脑峰会时，选择偏远、交通不便的会址，然后在离会场很远的地方就设立警戒线，挡住示威者，已经成为主办方惯用的手段。

Quantitative easing 扩大货币发行量，其实就是政府用印钞票来“造钱” － printing money。这是英格兰银行行长 Mervyn King 在3月4日宣布的最新刺激经济措施，数量是750亿英镑。当然现在“造钱”很简单，只要英格兰银行在自己的账户上加上750亿就行。

报章头条：

The Daily Telegraph: Quantitative easing: the modern way to print money or a therapy of last resort?

The Guardian: Time to start printing money – Bank’s last throw of the dice

The Times: What is quantitative easing? How it works

《每日电讯报》网站上最近出现了编辑对着镜头说话式的视频。这里就有一段由 Robert Miller 解释 quantitative easing 的视频：

在同一期的读者反馈上，《泰晤士报》的Sally Baker说自从上周有读者指出 in the firing line 是指“开火”而不是“被打”之后，又有读者来信说，in the firing line 也可以用来形容“被打”，证据是在《牛津简明英语辞典》上：

The Concise OED definition of ‘in the firing line‘ is: ‘1. The front line of troops in a battle; 2. A position where one is subject to criticism or blame.’

但是显然Sally Baker的字典(Collins English Dictionary)上没有这种说法。《卫报》的“文字规范”(Style guide)显然支持她的观点。原因很简单：他们用的同一本字典。

firing line
the people who do the firing; if they are aiming at you, you are in the line of fire not in the firing line.

我其实一直有这个疑惑，在适用 None of these 这样的词组时，后面跟的动词照理应该是单数形式，但是 None of them has this skill 这样的句子看上去不是太顺眼。这个星期六《泰晤士报》的读者反馈上 Sally Baker 对此进行了一番调查发现：

It is a mistake to suppose that the pronoun is singular only and must at all costs be followed by singular verbs or pronouns.

以及：

Use a singular verb where possible but if the notion of plurality is present a plural verb has been optional since the OE period and in some circumstances is desirable. The type ‘none of them have finished their essays’ is better than the clumsy ‘…has finished his or her essay’.

原来 None of these, None of them 这样的词组之后的动词，可以适用单数形式，也可以适用复数形式，取决于上下文。

我又查了《卫报》的“文字规范”(Style guide)，同样写道：

none
It is a (very persistent) myth that “none” has to take a singular verb: plural is acceptable and often sounds more natural, eg “none of the current squad are good enough to play in the Premiership”, “none of the issues have been resolved”

金融风暴中，各种繁复的金融专业词汇满天飞，各种 scheme 、fund 看得人晕头转向。《卫报》上2月13日的一篇文章，用简洁易懂的日常英语介绍了政府救市的多种手段。

Making money cheaper 调低利率，希望贷款利息降低

Lending money to banks 政府借钱给银行，希望银行再借给客户

Giving money to banks 政府向银行注资，希望银行不会垮掉

Insuring against bad loans 政府为坏账提供担保，希望银行摆脱坏账，恢复功能

Spending more money 政府多花钱或少说税，希望个人口袋里钱增多，刺激消费投资

以上各招都不见效的话，就只有最后一招：

Printing more money 政府多印钞票，希望增加市场上货币流通。

The Guardian: The increasingly desperate throws of the dice

记得十多年流行讽刺知识分子，就是现在的“小资”了，常用的段子就是男演员先作扭捏状，然后以一个江浙口音的普通话说“他母亲的！”

所以当看到昨天《卫报》上 Hadley Freeman 的这句话时，我禁不住笑了：

But you know what, Mr Romilly? Life is hard. Sometimes, one can even compare it to a female dog.

Hadley Freeman: Purely Cosmetic

最近BBC接连出现两起“带冒犯性字眼”(offending words)，在 Russel Brand/Jonathan Ross事件之后，BBC动作很快，在第一时间就处理的事件。

第一起是 Golliwog ，BBC One 的 The One Show 的主持之一，前首相撒切尔夫人的女儿 Carole Thatcher 在节目的准备间 (green room) 中，用 golliwog 来形容一位参加澳大利亚网球公开赛的球员。在现场人士投诉之后，BBC 要求 Carol Thatcher 正式道歉被拒绝，于是 The One Show 决定不再让她参与节目制作。

Golliwog 是一个玩具，一个黑脸、白眼、红唇、爆炸式头发的玩具，最早 Golliwogg 这个角色是由英国儿童作家 Kate Upton 在19世纪末创作，以后以 Golliwog 为名的布玩具开始流行，至今还有得卖。但是 Golliwog 以及其变种 golli 、wog 从二战以来，一直被用作形容黑人，带有侮辱性的歧视含义，虽然许多白人并没有意识到这一称呼的歧视意义。这也许是 Carol Thatcher 不愿道歉的原因。Hannah Pool 在今天的 Guardian 上说得切中要害：

I’m not saying you have to be black to have a point of view on this, but you certainly have to be black to have ever been called a golliwog, so when a white man tells me he doesn’t see what the problem is, well, am I really expected to take him seriously?

一个用词是否有歧视意义，只有接受方才有最终的发言权。这其实与北京奥运前夕，西班牙和阿根廷运动员拍“眯眼照”合影的举动类似。

第二起是 one-eyed Scottish idiot。BBC 的汽车节目 Top Gear 主持 Jeremy Clarkson 在澳大利亚出席宣传活动时，把英国首相布朗成为 one-eyed Scottish idiot，当即引起了皇家失明人士协会和一些苏格兰政客的抗议，在这之后，Jeremy Clarkson 通过 BBC 发表了道歉声明。布朗是苏格兰人，年轻时候在玩橄榄球时受伤导致一只眼睛几乎失明。

Inaugural address of President Barack Obama

My fellow citizens:

I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.

Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.

So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.

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Times 的餐馆评论员 Giles Coren 在他最近的文章中，对 Guardian 做了一番调侃，反映了部份人对这份报纸的偏见。他在解释为什么 Guardian 上的餐馆评论不如他自己的好：

Both critics are good friends of mine and both have undeniably tremendous appetites, but both are rather hamstrung, I guess you could say, by working for a newspaper group whose business model turns on the certainty that schoolteachers, social workers and angry jobless graduates will always need a newspaper, so it might as well be theirs. Thus any restaurant (or indeed anything) that reeks of frivolity, extravagance, bourgeois aspiration or pretentiousness must be flattened with the cold hammer of Socialist Realism.

Guardian’s Jonathan Freedland assesses the pros and cons of Hillary Clinton as Secrectary of State.