Play With Words

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”

《泰晤士报》负责读者反馈的编辑 Sally Baker 在星期六的专栏中有这么一段：

Allowed a front-page headline “Bankers in the firing line” when, as Robert Colbeck, among others, pointed out: “If you are in the firing line you are the one doing the shooting. If you are being shot at (presumably the image the headline-writer was striving for) you are either under fire or in the line of fire.”

原来我也一直以为 in the firing line 是指“面对炮火”，遭到攻击的意思。经以上这位读者解释，in the firing line 其实是指处于“射击线”上向目标开火。一个是被打，一个个打别人，意义大相径庭。

但是把这个意思搞错的不只《泰晤士报》一家，几个例子：

Forbes.com: Britain’s Bonuses in the Firing Line 说的是银行奖金遭攻击

Daily Mail: Defenc funding in the firing line 说得是国防开支缩减

但在 BBC网站上的新闻标题是用对了这个词组：

BBC: Child soldiers in the firing line 说得是非洲的未成年士兵参战

英国众议院每周三中午有30分钟的 Prime Minister’s Question Time (PMQ – 我过去曾用过“首相提问时间”和“首相答问时间”两种译法，显然后者更好)。现在的趋势，根据一些议会专门报道议会辩论的记者(他们的职业称呼是 sketch writer – 议会写生员)，似乎是越来越粗鲁没礼貌。原因是工党首相布朗(Gordon Brown)容易动怒又不会开玩笑骂人，而保守党领袖卡梅伦(Cameron)倒是严辞锋利，但为了避免显得夸夸其谈太轻飘，不得不时时做出激愤状。两人你来我往谁也收不住，有时弄得大家都下不了台，身后的议员们就表现得像是一群看人打架在一边拍手叫好的看客，常常裁判－－Common Speaker (众议院主席)不得不介入拉架。所以本周三双方互骂对方 student politics 就显得挺应时：

The Prime Minister tried to be rude in return by accusing Mr Cameron of playing “student politics“, but the Tory leader batted this straight back: “Mr Speaker, only one of us was a student politician and he’s never grown out of it.”

Mr Brown was obsessed by student politics at Edinburgh: Mr Cameron kept out of student politics at Oxford.

Andrew Gimson on Telegraph: Sketch: Gordon Brown feels the pain of creating a brave new world

《泰晤士报》上的 Ann Treneman 则更多地感叹在世界经济危机面前，别人都团结一致，英国的议员们却东奔西散：

Student politics? We should be so lucky. This may even be sub-playground. I have seen pre-schoolers behave better. What is strange is that, in the country, the recession has brought us together. As a people, we are hunkering down, trying to ride it out. But, at Westminster, the recession has driven our politicians farther apart. Now, as surreal as a dream, they are screaming into the wind across an ever-growing abyss.

Ann Treneman on the Times: No end in sight to Gordon Brown’s global nightmare

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.

Reshuffle 多是用来指政府或者机构高层的人员重组。比如英国内阁会不定期的重组 reshuffle。这一两天媒体都在说 reshuffle 是因为原来被认为是比较势弱、在重组上牵制重重的布朗，竟然出了一着险棋，把布莱尔的老臣曼德尔森(Peter Mandelson)从欧盟贸易专员的位置拉进内阁。

The Times: Mandelson returns in Brown’s big gamble. The most daring resuffle in modern times.

The Guardian: Gordon Brown’s resuffle – LIVE.

Short selling 即“卖空”，是一个股市操作用语，指在预计某只股票会跌的情况下，先从其他股东手里借到股票，抛出，然后在股票价格下跌之后，以低价买入股票，还给股东。如果押得准，获利可以极大；当然如果押错，损失也是惊人。

Short selling 成为 buzzword，是因为银行危机最近几天已经到了急转直下的阶段。有人提出 short selling 是罪魁祸首之一，指责有人故意制造恐慌，压低股价，借机牟利。于是在美国证卷管理当局禁止 short selling 之后，英国的金融管理局 FSA 也在今天宣布，从明天开始，将禁止 short selling。

其实 short selling 是有其正常功用，Seth Freedman 今天在《卫报》网站上说禁止 short selling属于莫名其妙。

Short selling 只是这次金融危机的一小部份。所有人的共识是，在此过后，一切都会不同了，将会有一套新的规则诞生。

在拼法上，是 short selling 还是 short-selling。在英国报纸中，只有《卫报》(Guardian)用的是 short selling，《泰晤士报》(Times)、《每日电讯报》(Daily Telegraph)、《独立报》(Independent)、BBC等用的是 short-selling。

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”。

BBC: Labour candidate Richard McKenzie lost his deposit as he trailed in behind the Greens and the British National Party.

The Times: Gordon Brown’s first anniversary as Labour leader began with the party securing only 1,066 votes, losing its £500 deposit.

Philip Howard 在《泰晤士报》上谈姓名后面各种缩写的正确次序时，提到了男人名字后面可以加的缩写 Esq。Esq 即 esquire，最早是用来指地位仅近低于“骑士”(knight)，但高于“绅士”(gentleman)的男子，后来又有多种用法，现在基本上已经没有意义，是个男人都可以说是 esquire。不过在美国却专门用于律师，不论男女。如果非要用 Esq，最重要的是记得 Esq 是只能用于书面形式的对他人的尊称，而且用了这种过时的尊称对方也不见得高兴。

在《泰晤士报》上刊登的英格兰地区 Sheriff 任命名单上，每个男人的名字后面还是跟 Esq 的。

Philip Howard on the use of Esq:

Indeed there are rules. These are largely obsolescent. An esquire was at first “a young man of gentle birth, who, as an aspirant to knighthood, attended upon a knight, carried his shield, and rendered him other services”. It became also “a man belonging to the higher order of English gentry, ranking immediately below a knight”. Several classes of men became entitled to be called esquires — younger sons of peers, eldest sons of knights; judges, barristers-at-law, and many others. By now Esq has lost all sense of rank, and can be attached (in correspondence) to the name of any adult male. In the US, Esq is often used by lawyers, both male and female, when referring to or addressing one another in writing. The suffix is dying, let it die.

上周《卫报》(Guardian)介绍英国一位因为给两位同性恋教士主持婚礼(civil partnership)而受到教会指责的牧师 Martin Dudley 时，开头第一句是这样的：

Until last Sunday few people had heard of the Reverend Dr Martin Dudley BD MSc MTh PhD FSA FRHistS AKC.

中国人喜欢在名片上加一堆头衔，英国人正式起来，就会在名字后面加一串学历职称资格头衔的缩写，弄出一堆让人莫名其妙的缩写来。

而且加缩写还是有规矩的。《泰晤士报》(Times)上的Philip Howard做了一个很有用的介绍，简单地说就是学历在先，从医资格(如果有的话)在后。但是如果还有御准非御准的头衔的话，就更复杂了。

The short answer is that university degrees precede medical qualifications in the position of letters after the name. The long answer is that Bt or Bart (for a baronet) and Esq, if applicable, precede all other letters. Then orders and decorations conferred by the Crown. Then appointments such as Privy Counsellor, Aide de Camp to Her Maj, Honorary Physician to the Queen. Then university degrees. Then religious orders. Then medical qualifications. Then fellowships of learned societies. Then secondary (ie non-royal) appointments, such as QC, JP, DL, MP. Finally membership of one of the armed forces, such as RN or RAF. Phew. I should take Occam’s Razor to all such alphabet soup of letters after names. Abbrevs and honorifics, like entia, non sunt multiplicanda.

回头看 Martin Dudley 的头衔，我知道 MSc = Master of Science，MTh = Master of Philosophy，PhD = Doctor of Philosophy，能猜出 FRHistS = Fellow of Royal Historic Society，其它就猜不出了。