In a previous entry, I mentioned that The New York Post is probably the worst newspaper in the USA.
It is extremely conservative, filled with gossip and often contains unreliable information. It is published by Rupert Murdoch.
In fact, a couple months ago I posted an article about how angry many people were that the Post published a photo on its front page of a man who was about to be hit and killed by a New York City subway train.
Basically, if I see a person reading the NY Post on the subway, I think, "Wow, that person must really be a moron." There are rumors that Murdoch loses millions of dollars publishing the paper but that he doesn't care because the paper gives him a "voice" in the world's most dynamic city. Unfortunately for Murdoch, every intelligent person in this city seems to be disgusted by his newspaper and probably thinks he is a terrible, hate-filled human being.
In another truly strange story (yes this is the ESL blog for strange stories) the NY Post decided to attack John Galliano for "mocking" Hasidic Jews. What's an Hasidic Jew? I explain further down.
It turns out, as you can see from this link, that Galliano was not mocking Hasidic Jews, the NY Post just happens to seem to hate Galliano and wanted to try to destroy his career apparently.
Here's what he looked like:
Here's a Hasidic Rabbi (religious leader) from Brooklyn:
http://www.thegloss.com/2013/02/13/fashion/john-galliano-scandal-new-york-post/
ignorantly - stupidly
The opposite of
conservative is
liberal.
unreliable - you can't trust it
a moron - the opposite of a genius. I'm guessing that many of the journalists for this "newspaper" are far from geniuses. Indeed, I wonder why a person would even take a job for a "newspaper" like this.
dynamic - exciting
If you are
disgusted by something, it makes you feel sick
to mock - to make fun of someone or something
anti-Semitic - anti-Jewish
schmuck - is a Jewish term for "asshole" or idiot. "Schmuck" literally means a "penis." What is a penis? Guys have penises, ladies don't. :P Actually, the NY Post is such a bad paper that they misspelled "schmuck."
"Jew-bash" - Jew bashing is when someone verbally attacks Jews. If someone engages in gay-bashing, they are attacking gays.
"..
he suffered mightily..." - he suffered a lot
semi-coherent - if you speak coherently, you make sense, or what you say is understandable. When Galliano attacked a couple Jewish ladies in Paris he was so drunk that he was semi or only partly coherent. If you listen to what he said on youtube, you can hear that he is very drunk and doesn't always make sense.
a rant - a tirade; if a person makes a rant he speaks angrily about a topic for awhile
rehab - rehabilitation; I guess it's a place where people get fixed up psychologically
to offend someone - to insult or hurt someone with words
"
so why would he dig the hole deeper..." - why would he deliberately cause trouble and attack Jews again? Of course, he wouldn't.
birdcage lining - the author of this piece calls the NY Post "birdcage lining." This means she thinks the only useful function for the NY Post is to use it on the bottom of your birdcage.
an inflammatory article - an article meant to cause a lot of trouble or to make people angry. Inflammatory means something can start on fire easily.
prominent leaders - leaders who are well-known or famous
garb - clothing
dandyish - fancy; a dandy is a guy who dresses fancy
"
you fucked up your anti-Jewish charge" - you messed up or ruined your attempt to make him seem anti-Jewish (The ADL is The Anti-Defamation League, a very powerful Jewish organization that attacks people who attack Jewish people. So this author is pointing out that the ADL is even saying that the NY Post is wrong.)
a distortion - something inaccurate
eccentric - strange
to atone for something wrong - to make up for something that a person did which was wrong
---------------
1) Do you think the NY Post made a mistake, or do you think they knew he was not "mocking" Jewish people?
-------------------------------
There are lots of Hasidic Jews in New York City. Here's a chapter from my book that deals with Hasidic Jews.
New
York City Sucks, But You'll Wanna Live Here Anyway
http://www.amazon.com/Sucks-Youll-Wanna-Anyway-ebook/dp/B004TSPAQS
(definitions of boldface terms are under the reading passage)
Chapter 4: They are not magicians,
they are Jewish folks
You're going to see them and you're
going to wonder who the heck they are. Every foreign student goes
through this so let me tell you right off the bat. There is no
escaping seeing them, especially if you live in certain parts of
Brooklyn. The guys are the most recognizable. The older guys have
big, bushy white beards, wear black fedora hats and dark blue or
black jackets regardless of how hot the weather is. They also have long,
and I mean really long, sideburns that curl and dangle from the sides of
their heads.
My Japanese friend Naoko and I were chatting in a Starbucks and when one of
these guys passed by she asked me: "Who the heck are these guys in the
black coats and old fashioned hats with the big bushy beards and long curly
sideburns?" I asked her, "Who do you think they
are?" After some time she responded, "Are they circus magicians?
I can't understand why there are so many circus magicians in New York
City!" No, Naoko, these are Jewish folks, but a special type of
Jewish folk. Let me explain.
Basically, you've got three types of Jewish folks in the USA. World-wide
there are about 13 million Jews and about 6 million live in the USA. The
three types of Jews are broken down into 3 basic groups: Orthodox,
Conservative and Reform Jews.
Orthodox Jews believe that at one time in history God gave the leader Moses
various holy texts. These texts make up a big chunk of the
Bible. So, basically, orthodox Jews believe that God wrote the
Bible. So they follow all the stuff written in the Bible closely.
The guys with the black hats are orthodox Jews and they wear the long sideburns
because apparently somewhere in the Bible it says guys shouldn't shave
the sides of their heads.
But it’s a little more complex than that.
In New York you'll see, basically, two types of orthodox Jews. The
guys are always more easily recognized. One type of orthodox Jewish guy
will wear a little round cap on the top of his head. This is called a
yah-mah-kah (but it's spelled yarmulka). From what a Jewish guy told me,
in the old days, folks believed that God was in the sky and looking down at
people. So the guys wear this because they don't want God to see the tops
of their heads; that would be disrespectful. A Shanghainese girlfriend of
mine who is kind of a smartass once said, "Oh, if they wear the
hats so God can see them, why don't they write: 'Hello God!' or 'Hey, do you
really exist?' on the tops of their yarmulkas." Ha ha ha - not
funny. This is somebody's religion goddamn it!
I don’t
know whether what the Jewish guy told me was true or not, though. Why don’t the women wear yarmulkas? Someone else, however, told me that some
orthodox women do cover their heads by wearing wigs (a wig is a covering of
hair that can be worn over your normal hair.) Oh! I was also told that orthodox Jewish folks
don’t even use the term God – they use the term “Hashem,” which means “the Name”
instead of the term God.
Then there are the really, really orthodox Jewish folks and those guys wear the
black hats, coats, beards and sideburns. They are called Hasidic
Jews. I think of them as super orthodox.
Basically, their version of Judaism began in Eastern Europe in the
1700s, primarily in Poland and Ukraine. From what I can understand, there
were groups of Jewish folks who wanted a deeper religious experience and
greater connection to God. These folks became the Hasidic Jews.
They developed a whole new approach to Judaism involving more physical action
and more emotion during prayer and a belief that God could be experienced
through nature. They valued emotion more than reason and avoided a type
of asceticism that pervades many religions. This was meant
as a religion for the real world. This was a religion in which a person
could derive meaning every single day in his/her life without avoiding
life. It was meant to be a deeper engagement with life, as it exists, so
that people could have a deeper connection to God.
Why do you see these guys in NYC and not Houston? I don't know.
What I do know is that the nazis (God damn them, the lousy scum!) really hated these folks.
They really tried to wipe all of them out in Eastern Europe during the
Holocaust. So there are about 500,000 Hasidic Jews in the world and a
big chunk of them live in Brooklyn. Go to Williamsburg and you'll see
them. The guys are dressed the way guys used to dress in Europe around
the time that their religion was formed and all orthodox Jewish women are
expected to wear skirts or dresses that go below their knees and they should
or even have to wear sleeves that go below their elbows.
Now, I wouldn’t be a good cynic if I
didn’t point out that this community has been causing a little controversy
lately. For instance, it looks as if
some sexual abuse has occurred in
the Hasidic community in New York, and it might have been covered up by the community to avoid a scandal or to avoid investigations
of Hasidic Jews by people outside of their community. Some young men, for instance, have claimed
that they were molested while taking
ritualistic baths called
mikvahs. What’s even more shocking is that there are claims in
the newspapers that victims might have been punished by members of the
community (in some way) if they had come
forward to complain outside of the community. What’s even more shocking than this is that
the Brooklyn DA (the lawyer who prosecutes those accused of crimes), might have helped in the cover up. There are so many Hasidic Jews who can vote,
it looks as if this politician did not want to offend the whole community and
lose votes. He denies this, of
course. Here’s some other stuff that isn’t quite as bad, but still pretty bad:
A few Hasidic rabbis seem to have
been doing something a bit weird after circumcising
male children. From what I’ve read in the
newspapers, some of these rabbis sucked the blood from the cut penis.
Why? I don’t care why. I refuse
to even do research about this one. In
the papers they said these rabbis claimed there was some reason to do
this. I never read about anyone sucking blood
from penises in the Bible, however, so I don’t know and I don’t care how anyone
might justify this. Apparently a
baby caught a disease from a rabbi
who sucked blood from that baby’s penis and a judge has ordered this practice to stop.
There was also a story about how men
in a Hasidic community in Brooklyn put signs up throughout their neighborhood
reminding women that if they see a man walking in their direction they should
step aside for him to pass by more easily.
I know this isn’t as shocking as sucking blood from a baby’s penis, but
I suddenly remembered this. Yes, this is
an example of “sexism;” sexism is when men act as if women are inferior to men
or sexism is the belief that women do not have as many rights as men. Racism is when a person from one racial group
(for instance “white” people) thinks that people from another group are not as
good or do not deserve the same rights.
You know, I guess lots of religions
have some problems – the Catholic Church has had chronic problems with “pedophile”
priests and it looks as if the Catholic Church in America has covered up a lot
of abuses and paid a lot of “hush-money”
to victims (people who were hurt). Some people refuse to donate to the Church now because they are afraid their donation
will be used as future hush-money. These
scandals are so terrible because many people have sincere religious beliefs and
want to be able to trust their children with sincere religious figures who are
super moral and great role models.
It’s depressing that some religious leaders do such terrible things and even
more depressing that others cover this behavior up. In all honesty, whenever my friends in NY
City hear about the Catholic Church, one of them always makes some kind of joke
about it. That’s very sad. The Catholic Church has kind of become the
source of jokes in America these days. Well, they can blame themselves.
Now back to my gossip about Hasidic
and orthodox Jewish folks. There was
this huge story in 2011 about an orthodox guy (he seemed to have psychological
and cognitive problems – a very low IQ) who kidnapped an 8 year old child, took him home, killed him, and chopped his body up so he could place
it in a suitcase and throw it out without being caught.
Apparently the child was lost and
looking for directions home from a summer school. The Hasidic child unluckily asked this
orthodox guy for help – after all, he was wearing a yarmulke so the kid felt he
could trust him. So the guy took the kid
into his car but instead of taking the kid to the kid’s home, as he had
promised, he drove the kid to a wedding he had been invited to in another
neighborhood (area). Now here’s the
weird situation. This odd (strange), not very bright guy shows up to a wedding with an unknown kid, and nobody
says anything?
How about: “Who’s the kid?” Or: “Where the hell did you get that kid
from?” Or: “You freaking nut!
Take that kid home to his parents now!” Or: “What is that kid’s mother’s phone number so we can
call her!?” I don’t understand
this. The papers didn’t seem to make a
big deal out of this because I don’t think they wanted to seem anti-othodox or anti-Hasidic, but I
think this question needed to be asked.
Did people know at the wedding that he had kidnapped this kid? What the hell kind of excuse could he have
given to people? Who knows. Maybe I shouldn’t judge the people at the
wedding, but, in light of what happened, I think a lot of people wish someone
had asked some questions about this kid at the wedding.
So basically, this was a guy with
serious psychological and cognitive problems who then left the wedding and took
this kid back to his apartment.
Apparently he was kind of lonely (as well as mentally ill) and saw the
kid as a potential friend. But the
Hasidic community is very tightly knit
and literally thousands of Hasidic Jews took
to the streets looking for this child when the parents reported the child
missing to the police. When this guy
learned of the search (on television), he panicked
and killed the child. He did not want to
be arrested as a “kidnapper.” So he
killed the child, cut the boy up and tried to hide the body in a suitcase
(which he dropped off in a garbage can in another neighborhood).
So I’m thinking, if anyone at the
wedding had asked a few obvious questions and had taken some necessary action,
the child might still be alive.
Yes? No? I mean I know everyone is preoccupied during a wedding, but lots
of people must have seen this little boy with this strange guy.
The man was apprehended only because the police luckily were able to find
videotape from a store’s outside surveillance
camera that had accidentally
recorded the boy talking to the guy and entering his car. They caught a glimpse of his license
plate number on this tape. Had this not
been caught on tape, this guy might not have been caught. But the people at the wedding saw the boy and
knew the guy didn’t have a child. Didn’t
they? Didn’t they later see the missing child reports on TV?
In any case, I’m confused by all of
this. The guy got a 40-year prison sentence because he agreed to plead guilty before any trial had to
take place. This was, basically, a plea deal. The boy’s family did not want to go through
the process of a trial because they did not want to see this story in the news
again and again during the trial. It
would have been too painful. In any case, there’s some recent information and
gossip about orthodox and Hasidic Jewish folks from the papers here. Again, lots of religions have problems. When I first wrote this chapter I had nothing
but good stuff to say about Hasidic folks.
Lately, however, I’ve seen this stuff in the papers and felt I had to
put it down here.
The other types of Jewish folks? Reform Jews are much more liberal.
They don't think the Bible was written by God. They acknowledge that
people created the Bible throughout differing periods of time. You
usually don't see reform Jews wearing yarmulkas etc. Conservative Jews
developed because there were some Jewish people who didn't like either the
orthodox or the reform approaches. Basically, conservative Jews think
that people wrote the Bible but were inspired by God. This is what I’ve been able to figure
out. You can do some reading on this
religion if you wanna. I just want to
explain who the guys with the coats, curly sideburns and hats are so you don’t
think they work at a circus when you see them.
Ah! So then you might ask, What the heck is kosher food? I see all
these kosher delis all over the place? Well, it looks as if the
Bible distinguishes between clean animals which can be eaten and unclean
animals that God would like people to avoid eating. So kosher food is
considered clean food by Jewish folks. For some reason just about any
type of fish is considered clean. Pigs are not considered clean
and so orthodox Jews avoid pork. It looks as if the laws also forbid meat
and milk to be combined in a meal. So orthodox Jews won't eat a sausage
pizza or a cheeseburger. Also, orthodox Jews are not supposed to
consume any type of blood. This is due to the ancient belief that a
life force is contained in the blood. Therefore, when animals are slaughtered,
there is a special person who does this and this person literally cuts the
throat of the animal so that it has to bleed to death - thereby the meat
is drained of blood. Animal rights activists are kind of pissed
about this. Orthodox Jews say it's a humane way to kill animals, but I'm
not so sure about that. Who knows.
New York City has to be the most diverse place on the planet and you'll see
signs and symbols of probably every religion on Earth here. For instance,
Catholics have a holiday in which a priest smears ashes (from a burnt
plant) on a person's forehead one day a year to remind everyone of his/her mortality.
This day is called Ash Wednesday. Naoko was also perplexed (confused) by
this. She said, "Who are these people with the black "x"
es on their foreheads?" Again I asked her who she thought they were
and she responded, "I think they all support the same athletic team.
The Mets? The Yankees?" No Naoko, they are Catholics
celebrating the beginning of a 40 day period of sacrifice leading to the
holiday of Easter, when they believe that Jesus rose from the
dead. You'll see lots of differing types of outfits (clothing) to signify
membership in differing religions in New York City. This city has
everything.
Definitions of terms
a magician - often works in a circus – he does magic
tricks. He often makes things seem to disappear and reappear.
Who the heck – “heck” is a softer or nicer form of the word “hell.”
Who the hell is he? Or, who the heck is he? You can use “the hell” or
“the heck” to provide extra emphasis to the question “Who is he?” So if a
person really wants to express a strong emotion attached to a question, “the
hell” or “the heck” is used. Who the hell does he think he is? What
the hell happened to my car? Who the heck ate the sandwich that I had in
the fridge? Why the hell didn’t he tell me he was coming this
afternoon? It is kind of impolite or harsh/rude to say this. You only say this when you are angry.
right off the bat – immediately. I am guessing “the bat” refers to a
baseball bat – the long, wooden club that is used by a baseball batter to try
to hit a baseball. So if something comes right off the bat, or you see
something right off the bat, it is fresh or immediate.
bushy gray beards – if something is bushy it is fluffy, like a bush in a
garden or like clouds. A beard is a type of hair that is grown from a
person’s chin. So a bushy white beard is a fluffy, or big chunk of gray
hair growing from a guy’s chin.
a fedora hat – this is an old fashioned hat that you might have seen in
some old Hollywood movies. Old Hollywood detectives often wore fedora
hats.
sideburns – this is hair that grows down the side of a man’s
face. In the 1860s there was an American General named General Burnsides
who had long hair growing down the sides of his face. So because there
wasn’t a name for this type of hair they turned his name around and called the
hair: sideburns.
a text – any written document.
a big chunk – a chunk is a piece of something.
to shave – this is the process of using some type of razor to remove
the hair from one’s face or, in the case of some women, from their legs and
underarms.
a smartass – this is someone who likes cracking (making) jokes or is
often very sarcastic. This is a somewhat vulgar term.
Goddamn it! This is the most common dirty expletive
statement. If you are angry or if something doesn’t go the way you wanted
it to, you might say or yell: Goddamn it! This is kind of dirty/vulgar.
asceticism – this is a practice, often among very religious people, of
trying to avoid various forms of pleasure. An ascetic is the opposite of
a hedonist. A hedonist loves and pursues pleasure. I
recently learned that the Russian Orthodox religion values asceticism.
Many people who are devoted to this religion will fast (go without food) for many days during the course of the year.
to pervade – to be found completely throughout some type of system.
If something is pervasive it is all over the place. Asian people pervade
the neighborhood of Flushing New York. Illegal immigrants are pervasive in the
New York City restaurant industry.
to derive meaning from – to get some type of meaning or deeper understanding from
something.
a nazi – this type of person belonged to a hate-filled political
party in Germany in the 1930s and 40s. I think we all know what a nazi
was.
scum – dirt. Dirt mixed with bacteria and other
germs. Scum is something you might find in a sewer. What’s a sewer? That’s where the water from your toilet goes
when you flush your toilet. If you call
a person “a piece of scum” you are saying that that person is really bad; worse
than an asshole. “You piece of asshole scum!” might be a good thing to
say to such a person. Yes, when Americans are REALLY angry they combine dirty
words: “You mother-fucking, asshole, son-of-a-bitch!” would be an example.
to wipe them out – to completely eliminate them.
The Holocaust – this is what Jewish folks call the attempt by the Nazis
to wipe out all the Jews in Europe.
should is used here but "have to" could also have
been used.
sexual
abuse – Abuse is a non-countable noun.
Abuse is when one or more people cause harm to another person. Sexual abuse is when one person harms another
sexually or to get sexual pleasure. “To
abuse” is the verb form – it is pronounced differently from the noun
“abuse.”
to
cover s/t up – to try to hide something that
happened.
to
molest – to harm or abuse someone
sexually.
a
ritual – a procedure that is done, often
in a religious situation or context.
shocking,
to shock s/o – if something is shocking you are
surprised by how wrong something is. @_@
The
DA – The District Attorney. This is the person who represents “the
people” in courtrooms against those who are criminals. He/she is actually in
charge of (the supervisor of) a huge office of lawyers (they work for the
people) who go to court to try to convict people who have committed crimes. If a person is convicted of a crime, he/she
is found “guilty” of committing that crime.
to
come forward and complain – to come
forward means to show yourself or to say something instead of remaining
silent. To complain – I’ve been
complaining about a lot of things that I don’t like about NY City. When you complain, you state something is
wrong.
to
prosecute – this is what lawyers for the
people (the state) try to do in criminal court trials. A trial is the process in which a judge or
jury (usually 12 citizens) tries to determine whether a person committed a
crime or not. The lawyers for the
people/state (prosecutors) try to show the judge or jury that the person being
tried is “guilty.” So they “prosecute”
this person. The person on trial also
will have a lawyer. This lawyer will try
to “defend” the person who has been accused of being guilty. He is the defense attorney. In America, if
you are too poor to be able to afford an attorney, the state is supposed to
give you one. Unfortunately, I’ve heard
that often the attorney a poor person gets usually sucks and doesn’t work that
hard to defend the person. It’s common knowledge in America that the more money
you have, the better the attorney you can get.
There are many stories about wealthy people who are obviously guilty,
but who have expensive lawyers, and who are found not-guilty.
to
accuse s/o of s/t – to claim that someone did
something wrong.
to
deny – to say something didn’t happen.
weird – strange.
to
circumcise – this is actually a common medical
procedure in America after a male child is born. Basically they cut off a piece of skin that
surrounds the “head” of the child’s penis (his sexual organ). There have been
newspaper reports saying that circumcision is actually good for a guy’s future health
and there are other studies that say it really doesn’t matter whether a baby is
circumcised or not. In the Jewish
religion all male babies have to be circumcised for some type of religious
reason. Ok, sorry again for my cynical, sarcastic attitude,
but if God didn’t want the chunk of skin on a guy’s penis, and he needs it to
be cut off, why did “He” put it there in the first place!!!!!! OMG!!!!!!
What if God really wants this chunk of skin on the penis!!!! OMG!!!!!!
a
penis – the guy’s sexual thingee. A man’s sexual organ. A woman’s sexual organ is called the vagina. There are slang or dirty words for “penis”
and “vagina” as well. A guy’s penis can
be called a cock or a dick or a prick. I once heard the
term “dinger” used for the male penis, which I thought sounded funny. The vagina can be called a cunt or a pussy. Sometimes if you are really angry with a guy
you can call him a “dickhead” or a “cocksucker” or “a pussy.” In this case, calling a guy a pussy means you
are calling him a vagina, which means you are implying he is kind of weak. If a guy doesn’t seem to have the courage to
do something, other guys might call him a pussy. If you are really angry with a woman, you
might call her a cunt. But this is
really nasty – most women will get angry if you call them cunts.
to
justify s/t – to say, “This is ok!” or “This is acceptable!”
to
catch a disease – catch is the verb used with
disease. I caught a cold yesterday.
a
judge – this is the person in charge of a
courtroom. A courtroom is where trials
occur. In America there are criminal
trials (where people can be punished by being thrown in jail) and civil trials
(where people can be punished by being forced to give money to other people).
chronic – if something is chronic, it happens over and over
again. It doesn’t seem to stop.
pedophilia – this is when some older people only seem to like the idea
of having sex with very young people.
It’s a creepy type of mental illness. A person who has this type of mental
illness is called a pedophile.
a
priest – in the Catholic Church these are
the guys who wear the black shirts with the white collars. They are the ones who operate the churches
and say the “masses” or religious services.
There are two types of “Christian” Churches: Catholic and Protestant. In Protestant Churches there are no priests –
the people who do the services are called “ministers.” In the Jewish religion, these types of people
are called “rabbis.” Why are Protestant
Churches called “Protestant”? It’s
because these churches were created by people who thought the Catholic Church
was corrupt. So they “protested” against
the Catholic Church. To protest against something is to say that something is
wrong and to try to change the thing which is wrong.
hush
money – when you want a child to be
quiet, you might say: “Hush!” So hush
money is money that is paid to a victim of a crime to make sure he/she does not
come forward and complain.
to
donate – to give money or time or effort
without expecting anything in return.
a
role model – if someone is a role model to
children, he shows the type of behavior that a child might adopt or
follow. Actually there are good role
models and bad role models for children.
cognitive – cognitive skills are thinking skills.
IQ – Intelligence Quotient.
A measure of a person’s intelligence.
The highest category of intelligence according to the IQ is “genius,”
the lowest is “moron.” If you are angry
at a person and think he is stupid, you can call him a moron. This is kind of a strong insult, however.
to
kidnap – to steal a human being.
to
chop – to cut into pieces. A chef usually chops up vegetables to put
them into a soup.
bright – this can also mean intelligent.
a
nut – a crazy person.
the
kid’s mother’s – yes, you can use two ‘s in a row.
anti – if you are anti-something, you are against it or don’t
like it. If you are pro-something you are for it or like it.
tightly
knit – very close together. If people have a tightly knit relationship,
they are super close.
to
take to the streets – to go into the streets, usually
to protest or to take some type of community action.
to
panic – to become very nervous about
something and act without thinking. For
example, if you have a child and are at the supermarket, and you turn around
and see that your child is not behind you, you might panic and begin running
through the store looking for him/her until you find the child.
to
be preoccupied – to be really focused on one thing
so that you can’t concentrate on other things that are happening. i.e. “Bob, you are not doing a good job today
at work because you seem to be preoccupied about something else.”
to
apprehend – to catch.
surveillance
cameras – these are cameras meant to record
things that happen publicly.
accidentally – not by choice, not deliberately.
to
glimpse – to see something briefly.
a
license plate – this is something placed on the
front and back of American cars so that the car can be identified by the police
or by people who witness (see) accidents.
It is usually a combination of letters and numbers.
a
sentence – yes, a sentence is usually a
grammar term, but in the field of criminal law a sentence also means the period
of time a person will go to jail. For
instance, Rod Blagojevich, a corrupt politician from Chicago, was given a 16
year prison sentence this year. He will
be in jail for a long time.
to
plead – this is also a legal term. If a person is brought into a courtroom after
being accused of a crime, the judge will say: “How do you plead?” The defendant (person accused of the crime)
can say: “I plead not-guilty” or “I plead guilty.” If the person pleads not
guilty, there will be a trial. Basically,
saying: “I plead not-guilty” means “I am not-guilty.” It’s really old fashioned language.
a
trial – this is the process in which a
judge or jury tries to determine whether a person is guilty or innocent. The person accused of a crime can choose to
have either a judge or a jury.
a
plea deal – there are many, many people who
are arrested by the police in America.
Therefore, the court system is overcrowded. Prosecutors have too many cases to deal with
every day. Therefore, they often try to
negotiate with the defense attorney instead of having a trial. A prosecutor might say, “OK, we have a lot of
evidence that your client committed this crime.
If we go to trial, your client will probably be found guilty and
sentenced to 20 years in jail by the judge.
However, if your client is willing to plead ‘guilty’ so that we do not
have to waste time and money and go to trial, we will ask the judge to show
some mercy and to only give your client a 10 year sentence.” So this is a “plea deal.” This is a legal term that you’ll see in the
newspapers, so you don’t really have to memorize it. So in the story above, the guy who killed the
child and chopped the child up accepted a plea deal for 40 years. This sounds long but in the prison system in
America, if you behave well they often drop (take away) time from your
sentence. So a person with a 40 year
sentence might get out in 30 years. If
he had not accepted the plea deal, he might have been found guilty and
sentenced to “life” in prison.
a liberal – the opposite of a
conservative. A liberal is supposedly more open-minded and
experimental than a conservative and a liberal politician will want to see
things change in his/her society whereas a conservative politician usually
likes to see things stay the same. In American politics a liberal is usually a
Democrat and a Conservative is a Republican.
to be inspired – to be influenced to do something on a very deep level, to
be especially motivated by someone or something.
a deli – a little store where sandwiches and other cold-cut meats
can be purchased.
to be considered as – to be thought of as.
to consume – in this case: to eat. A consumer, however, can be a
person who buys things.
to slaughter – this means to kill an animal, usually for food.
to bleed – this means to make the animal lose its blood until it is
dead.
to drain – this means to bleed an animal until it does not have any
blood left in it. Of course, you can probably never completely drain an
animal of all of its blood. Yes? No?
to be pissed about something – means to be angry about something.
to smear – to take a substance and rub it against another substance
in order to leave a messy mark. You might smear sun block on your face or
body.
mortality – the fact that everything that lives is going to
die. Fuck!
a sacrifice – the act of giving something up in order to get something
better.
rise, rose risen – in this case the story goes that Jesus died and then he
came back to life – he rose from the dead.
Grammar stuff: The imperative –
telling someone to do something
The big problem that foreign
students seem to have with the imperative is that they often use a pronoun
before the imperative form of the verb. For instance, You take the
garbage out! No. It should just be: Take the garbage out. Or, Please take the garbage out.
Now, nobody likes to take
orders. So unless you are a total asshole, please don’t just tell someone
to do something, use “please” before your imperative statement in
English. So basically, don’t use a pronoun and try to use
"please" and you’ll be ok. If a person uses the imperative with
you without "please," he’s an asshole.
Please throw that garbage out before
you leave! Please give me my bag! Please hand me my coat.
There are other ways to soften an
imperative sentiment or command.
If you want to tell another person you are with that she should cross the
street, you can say, “Please cross the street with me.” But that sounds a
little silly. So you can use “let’s.” Let’s cross the street
now! Let’s get some dinner now! Let’s go to a movie.
“Why don’t we…” is very useful. Why don’t we cross the street now? Why don’t we
get some dinner? Why don’t we go to a movie? Please practice this.
Here’s something somewhat related to
the imperative. Foreign students who are studying with native-speakers
who have to leave a table to go to the bathroom are often not sure what to
say. Please try this: Would you mind if I went to the restroom?
Would you mind if I answered this call? So it is going to be “Would you
mind if…” plus some past tense of a verb.
More Grammar Stuff –
“So” vs. “Such a”
Almost
every foreign student makes this type of mistake over and over and over
again. Basically, you use “so” with an
adjective and “such a” with an adjective
and noun.
She
is so beautiful! She
is such a beautiful woman!
He
is so fat! He
is such a fat guy!
That
book is so good! That is
such a good book.
Please
practice because it drives me crazy when people make this type of mistake.
18 essential vocab words
Fill-in-the-blanks
a magician, a role model, to shave, to
donate, sideburns, chronic, asceticism, to justify, to pervade, to panic, liberal,
to chop, inspired, to be preoccupied, to slaughter, to glimpse, a sacrifice, a
deli
Basically, the Republican political
party in America is conservative and believes that what is good for business is
good for America; the Democratic political party is ___________ and believes
that business should be regulated through strong laws and there should be lots
of social programs for people.
____________ were very popular in
the 1960s and 70s and suddenly came back in the 1990s when men became inspired
by hairstyles and facial hair from those decades.
Young boys love sports activities,
but athletes are sometimes not good _______________ for these children. Athletes often cheat, fight and argue with
officials or get involved in drug scandals.
Bob was very sad to read about the
suffering of the Japanese people after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Therefore, as poor as he was, he ____________
a little bit of money to try to help the survivors in Japan.
Initially the pain in my back came
and went. However, when the pain became
_____________ I knew I needed to go to a hospital and find out what might be
wrong.
Asian parents tend to have a
reputation for making any type of ____________ for the sake of their children
and their children’s education.
I was hungry, but I didn’t want to
eat a huge meal, so I stopped off at my neighborhood _________ and bought a ham
and cheese sandwich.
I haven’t seen too many celebrities
in New York City. Once, however, I
caught a _____________ of Hugh Grant as he was entering a hotel.
Joe had to admit that he had not
been a good husband or father lately because he was so ________________ with
his work.
In the old days a ___________ used
to make small objects disappear or pretend to saw (cut) people in half.
Now magic tricks have become complex theatrical spectacles.
When a Buddhist monk ___________ the
hair off of his head, he is making a statement that personal appearance is of
no real concern to him.
Vegetarians and even more radical
(extremely liberal) vegans object to the way that many animals are
______________ for food.
The guillotine was a device created
during the French Revolution which _____________ off the heads of people
thought to be traitors (not faithful to the Revolution).
The flag of New York City was
_____________ by the flag of Holland since the first European settlers here
were from that country.
Although Bob realized that the
brakes on his car were not working, he did not _____________. He simply slowed the car down by taking his
foot off the gas and pulled over to the side of the road.
Hedonism is the philosophy that the
best life is a life of continuous pleasure. To the other extreme is
_____________: the belief that pleasure is evil or that it can corrupt (make a
person immoral, dishonest) a person.
Even though it is terribly
inefficient and slow and unreliable, the subway system ___________ New York
City; you can get just about anywhere in Manhattan by subway.
Although some people feel that the
war with Iraq could be _____________ because we removed a dictator from power
there, others point out that there was, honestly, no good reason to attack that
country.
Answers: liberal, sideburns, role
models, donate, chronic, sacrifice, deli, glimpse, preoccupied, magician,
shaves, slaughtered, chopped, inspired, panic, asceticism, pervades, justified,
