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Bells and Whistles
Word of the Day: Bells and Whistles As I mentioned, my wife and I are tickled pink with our new car and all its bells and whistles. This does not mean the car sounds like Santa’s reindeer and all their sleigh bells—”Jingle, jingle, jingle, I can hear those sleigh bells say…” No, definitely not. The…
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Bombastic
Word of the Day: Bombastic Bombastic is a word used to describe a person who likes to use long and complicated words. They usually do this to make themselves seem more intelligent or more important than they really are. In most cases, people do not enjoy listening to bombastic speakers. People do not enjoy listening…
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Make headlines
English Idiom: Make headlines A lot of things have been making headlines recently. Donald Trump has become president-elect Donald Trump. There has been a rather large earthquake and tsunami in northern Japan again. On top of that, President-elect Trump announced that he still intends to withdraw the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership immediately upon…
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Long in the tooth
English Idiom: Long in the tooth We’re all getting a little long in the tooth. This idiom means someone is older or at least older than you. As far as I can ascertain, the expression comes from the fact that as some animals, such as horses, age, their gums recede, making their teeth look longer.…
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Acclimatize
Word of the Day: Acclimatize It doesn’t matter whether you believe humans cause climate change or if you think the changes in the climate patterns are just Mother Nature’s natural process; we all have to acclimatize. As the conditions and weather change, we have to adapt to them. We may have to plant our vegetables…
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Moonlight
WotD: Moonlight (verb) Yes, it can be used as a verb. You are moonlighting if you have a second job, a secret job you did not tell your boss about. Many people have a side hustle because they want or need more money. To moonlight means to have a second secret job. It is called…
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Put lipstick on a Pig
English Expression: Put lipstick on a pig If someone is putting lipstick on a pig, they are making minor cosmetic changes to something that was not very good to begin with. These changes will only make it look better than it is. Mr. Donkey could paint this house, but it would still be a terrible…
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Out of hand
English Phrase: Out of hand Out of hand means that you refuse or dismiss something without thinking about it deeply. If one of my friends asked me to run naked with them in the Tokyo marathon, I would refuse it out of hand. I would not even think about it. Actually, in Afghanistan, a secret…
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Hoopty
Word of the Day: Hoopty (slang) A hoopty is a car that you don’t like. Do you have one? Does your friend? Maybe your next-door neighbour has an ugly vehicle parked in their driveway, and you can’t stand it. First, you need to know what a hoopty is, right? Well, it’s a name for a…
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Going rate
Word of the Day: Going rate We talk about the going rate of things quite often. In Japan these days, many people are amazed and even angry at the going rate of vegetables such as Chinese cabbage, white radish, onions, carrots, etc., due to the four typhoons that hit northern Japan this year. Many people…
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