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A bus stops and two Italian men get on. They sit down and engage in an animated conversation. The lady sitting next to them ignores them at first, but her attention is galvanized when she hears one of them say the following: “Emma come first. Den I come. Den two asses come together. I come once-a-more. Two asses, they come together again. I come again and pee twice. Then I come one lasta time.”
“You foul-mouthed sex obsessed swine,” retorted the lady indignantly. “In this country we don’t speak aloud in public places about our sex lives…”
“Hey, coola down lady,” said the man. “Who talkin’ abouta sex? I’m a justa tellin’ my frienda how to spell “Mississippi’.”
Now, the VOA Special English program WORDS AND THEIR STORIES.
Making choices is necessary, but not always easy. Many of our expressions tell about this difficulty.
One of these expressions is Hobson’s choice. It often is used to describe a difficult choice. But that is not what it really means. Its real meaning is to have no choice at all.
The Hobson in the expression was Thomas Hobson. Mister Hobson owned a stable of horses in Cambridge, England.
Mister Hobson often rented horses to the students at Cambridge University. But, he did not really trust them to take good care of the horses. So, he had a rule that prevented the students from riding his best horses. They could take the horse that was nearest the stable door. Or, they could not take any horse at all.
Thus, a Hobson’s choice was really no choice.
Another expression for having no real choice is between a rock and a hard place. It is often used to describe a difficult situation with few choices, none of them good.
For example, your boss may ask you to work late. But you have plans to go to a movie with your friends. If you refuse to work, your boss gets angry. But if you do not go to the movies with your friends, they may get angry. So what do you do? You are caught between a rock and a hard place.
Another expression, between the devil and the deep blue sea, also gives you a choice between two equally dangerous things.
Its meaning seems clear. You can choose the devil and his burning fires of hell. Or, you can choose to drown in the sea. Some word experts say the expression comes from the days of wooden ships.
The devil is a word for a seam between two pieces of wood along the water-line of a ship. If the seam or crack between the two pieces of wood begins to leak, then a sailor must fix it. The sailor ordered to make the repairs was in a dangerous situation. He was hanging over the side of the ship, working between the devil and the deep blue sea.
There is still another expression that describes a situation with only bad choices, being on the horns of a dilemma.
The dictionary says a dilemma is a situation in which you must make a decision about two equally balanced choices. When your dilemma has horns, a choice becomes impossible. When you are on the horns of a dilemma, no matter which horn you choose, something bad will happen.
(MUSIC)
This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Marilyn Christiano. I’m Christopher Cruise.
The Irish word “Claddagh” means “Stony shore.” In century past the “Claddagh” was a famous fishing village, just across the river Corrib from Galway city. Its elected leader, the “King of Claddagh,” ruled the fishing fleet in Galway Bay and settled disputes.
Today visitors still go to Claddagh to see its swans, and to enjoy a good view of Galway city, but the village’s old mud-wall cottages have been replaced by modern housing.
The “King of Claddagh” is now an honorary title. The current King of Claddagh is Michael Linsky, who naturally wore his Claddagh Ring when we met him in the museum room of Thomas Dillon’s, the longest-established Claddagh jewellers. As Michael explained, the ring consists of a heart held by two hands with a crown on top.
Michael Linsky
Standard Irish accent.
The heart is for love of course, the crown is for loyalty, and the hands are for friendship. Now, love, as you know, will wane, as time goes on, loyalty will always be under pressure, but friendship never dies, it’s the one thing that will linger on.
THE STUFF OF LEGEND
There are many legends connected with the Claddagh Ring. One says that in the 17th century a young man from Galway, Richard Joyce, was kidnapped by pirates and sold to a Moorish master goldsmith, who taught him the craft. When Joyce returned to Galway, he presented his faithful lover with a gold ring with the now famous design.
The story of Michael Linsky’s family is also very romantic. When Michael’s mother, a Claddagh woman, left for Boston in 1912, she was booked on the Titanic. Luckily, The Titanic was full, and she went to Boston on a different ship. Michael’s father joined the British Army and fought in the First World War and his mother and father wrote to each other for nine years. Later, in the “Hungry Thirties, when Michael grew up, most Claddagh women had a Claddagh ring, as well as their plain gold wedding hand. Life was difficult and many people pawned their rings in order to pay for a ship passage for America. Today the ring remains popular as a symbol of love and friendship. It’s worn by people everywhere and it is said that some 200 Claddagh Rings were found in the rubble of the World Trade Center. In spite of that sad statistic, the Claddagh ring is generally seen as a source of happiness:
Michael Linsky:
Where it originated is a bit of a mystery, but it’s one of the most popular rigns in the world. I mean, any country I’ve been…and I’ve been into quite a few, off and on, and I often met somebody with a Claddagh Ring, and suddenly we’d have a big conservation: “Oh, where are you from?” “Ah, yeah?” So… we’d be starting to talk, and it was the ring that introduced us in its own pirate, silent way.
The Magic Ring
The Claddagh Ring represents marriage, engagement or friendship. It consists of a crown over a heart, which is held by two hands. The crown symbolizes loyalty, the heart is for love and the two hands are for friendship. If the ring is worn on the left-hand ring finger, facing away from the body, then the wearer is engaged: if the ring is worn on the same finger (but the wearer is married. On the right hand, the ring facing outwards means “free,” while, if the ring faces inwards, it means “in love.”
Where to Buy a Claddagh Ring
There are many jewellers in Galway selling Claddagh Rings, but the longest-established (1750) is Dillon’s, now at n° 1, Quay Street, the main shopping street. A room at the back tells the history of the ring and the Claddagh area in photos and memorabilia. It also shows the ring through the ages (including the smallest Cladddagh Ring in the World). Check the website www.claddaghring.ie for a list of their famous client Winston Churchill and Queen Victoria, Grace Kelly and John Wayen. By the way, Jim Morrison of the Doors and his girlfriend exchanged Claddagh Rings during their “Pagan wedding.”
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Hunting scene Northeast Tradition, Furna do Messias.
Everyday before I go to bed I don't forget to thank you for your support and how much is important your audience, comment, suggestion and your viewpoint. I'm so sorry to say that I'll be away for 5 days off-line, no internet and Social Networking websites, So sad to me 'cause I love blogging, but so happy, because on the other hand me, and a stuff of the Secretary of Tourism of my town (Carnaúba dos Dantas) we're travelling tomorrow towards the Capital in order to take part on the Brazil National Tourism Mart in Natal, capital of the Rio Grande do Norte State. The event runs on 12th until 15th and this is the opportunity to take part there. However we were not taking part on the Top Table, just the Brazil Operator and over 38 countries will be in Natal. As you can see, I don't forget to communicate for you, the main reason of English Tips' blog, without you it doesn't make sense. Thank you for your help in advance and continue promoting my blog for friends. I'll update on the auto-publishing, see you the next Sunday.
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I'm Steve Ember. And I'm Barbara Klein with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English.
Today we tell about Jane Jacobs. She was an activist for improving cities.
Jane Jacobs was an activist, writer, moral thinker and economist. She believed cities should be densely populated and full of different kinds of people and activities. She believed in the value of natural growth and big open spaces.
She opposed the kind of city planning that involves big development and urban renewal projects that tear down old communities. She was also a critic of public planning officials who were unwilling to compromise.
Jacobs helped lead fights to save neighborhoods and local communities within cities. She helped stop major highways from being built, first in New York City and later in Toronto, Canada.
Developers and city planners often criticized her ideas. Yet, many urban planning experts agree that her work helped shape modern thinking about cities.
Jane Butzner was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in 1916. Her father was a doctor. Her mother was a former teacher and nurse. After graduating from high school, Jane took an unpaid position at the Scranton Tribune newspaper. A year later she left Scranton for New York City.
During her first several years in the city she held many kinds of jobs. One job was to write about workers in the city. She said these experiences gave her a better idea about what working in the city was like.
As a young woman, Jacobs had many interests, including economics, law, science and politics. Her higher education was brief, however. She studied for just two years at Columbia University in New York. Jacobs did not complete her college education, but she did become an excellent writer and editor. While working as a writer for the Office of War Information she met a building designer named Robert Jacobs.
In 1944, they married. They later had three children. Her husband's work led to her interest in the monthly magazine, Architectural Forum. Jacobs became a top editor for the publication.
Experts have described Jacobs as a writer who wrote well, but not often. She is best known for her book "The Death and Life of Great American Cities." The book was published in 1961. It is still widely read today by both city planning professionals and the general public.
Experts say "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" is the most influential book written about city planning in the twentieth century.
In the book, Jacobs criticized the urban renewal projects of the 1950s. She believed these policies destroyed existing inner-city communities and their economies.
She also thought that modern planning policies separated communities and created unnatural city areas. Jacobs described the nature of cities – their streets and parks, the different cultures represented by citizens and the safety of a well-planned city. Safety was an important issue in big cities that had high rates of crime.
Jacobs wrote that peace on the streets of cities is not kept mainly by the police even though police are necessary. It is kept by a system of controls among the people themselves. She believed the problem of insecurity cannot be solved by spreading people out more thinly.
Jacobs argued that a well-used city street is safer than an empty street. Safety, she argued, is guaranteed by people who watch the streets every day because they use the streets every day.
"The Death and Life of Great American Cities" became a guide for neighborhood organizers and the people who Jacobs called "foot people." These are citizens who perform their everyday jobs on foot. They walk to stores and to work. They walk to eating places, theaters, parks, gardens and sports stadiums. They are not who Jacobs called "car people" – those who drive their cars everywhere.
Jane Jacobs also believed that buildings of different sizes, kinds and condition should exist together. She pointed to several communities as models of excellence. These include Georgetown in Washington, D.C.; the North End in Boston, Massachusetts; Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Telegraph Hill in San Francisco, California.
She also supported mixed-use buildings as a way to increase social interaction. Such buildings have stores and offices on the ground floor. People live on the upper floors. Mixed-use buildings are a lot more common in American cities than in the suburban areas around them.
Jane Jacobs also noted New York City's Greenwich Village as an example of an exciting city community. This is one of the communities that was saved, in part at least, because of her writings and activism. In 1962, Jacobs headed a committee to stop the development of a highway through Lower Manhattan in New York City. The expressway would have cut right through Greenwich Village and the popular SoHo area.
Influential New York City developer Robert Moses proposed the plan. But huge public protests in 1964 led the city government to reject it. Jacobs' book, "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" helped influence public opinion against the expressway.
In 1969, Jacobs moved to the Canadian city of Toronto where she lived for the rest of her life. Part of her reason for leaving the United States was because she opposed the United States involvement in the war in Vietnam. At that time, she had two sons almost old enough to be called for duty. Jacobs continued to be a community activist in Toronto.
She was involved in a campaign to stop the Spadina Expressway through Toronto. This highway would have permitted people living in suburban areas outside Toronto to travel into and out of the city easily.
Jacobs organized citizens against the Spadina Expressway and the politicians who supported it. One of her most important issues was this question: "Are we building cities for people or for cars?"
Today, experts say Toronto is one of only a few major cities in North America to have successfully kept a large number of neighborhoods in its downtown area. Many experts believe this is because of the anti-Spadina movement led by Jane Jacobs.
Jane Jacobs spent her life studying cities. She wrote seven books on urban planning, the economy of cities, and issues of commerce and politics. Her last book, published in 2004, was "Dark Age Ahead." In it, Jacobs described several major values that she believed were threatened in the United States and Canada. These included community and family, higher education, science and technology and a government responsive to citizens' needs.
In "Dark Age Ahead," Jacobs argued that Western society could be threatened if changes were not made immediately. She said that people were losing important values that helped families succeed.
In "Dark Age Ahead," Jacobs also criticized how political decision-making is influenced by economics. Governments, she said, have become more interested in wealthy interest groups than the needs of the citizens. Jacobs also warned against a culture that prevents people from preventing the destruction of resources upon which all citizens depend.
Jane Jacobs had her critics. Many of them argued that her ideas failed to represent the reality of city politics, which land developers and politicians often control. Others argued that Jacobs had little sympathy for people who want a lifestyle different from the one she proposed.
Still, many urban planning experts say her ideas shaped modern thinking about cities. She has had a major influenced on those who design buildings and towns that aim to increase social interaction among citizens.
Jane Jacobs died in 2006 in Toronto at the age of 89. Her family released a statement on her death. It said: "What's important is not that she died but that she lived, and that her life's work has greatly influenced the way we think. Please remember her by reading her books and implementing her ideas."
