Thunder and Lightning!

Hello everybody,

I dare to add a little post. I haven’t found the correct answer to Tássio’s piquant “bumpkin” but I’ll find one some time “soon”.

I chose a passage from the novel “the adventures of Huckleberry Finn” written by an American writer, Mark Twain. (Yeah yeah I know you guys are more into British English…) If ever you can get a hand on that book: read it! It’s enriching in many ways, i-e, it’s meaningful, pleasant to read, funny, just… an American classic. Well anyway, here’s the extract:

“It would get so dark that it looked all blue-black outside, and lovely; and the rain would thrash along by so thick that the trees off a little ways looked dim and spider-webby; and here would come a blast of wind that would bend the trees down and turn up the pale under-side of the leaves; and then a perfect ripper of a gust would follow along and set the branches to tossing their arms as if they was just wild; and next, when it was just about the bluest and blackest -- fst! it was as bright as glory, and you'd have a little glimpse of tree-tops a-plunging about away off yonder in the storm, hundreds of yards further than you could see before; dark as sin again in a second, and now you'd hear the thunder let go with an awful crash, and then go rumbling, grumbling, tumbling, down the sky towards the under side of the world, like rolling empty barrels down stairs -- where it's long stairs and they bounce a good deal, you know.”

To thrash: it can mean to whip or to move or swing about with flailing, violent motions (I’d say it’s this definition in the text). It can also be to work windward, against the tide or when swimming.

A Ripper of a gust: a violent/sharp blow of wind.

Yonder: distant but within sight

Rumbling, grumbling, tumbling: “a loud low dull continuous noise” (from www.wordreference.com) and for tumbling : “pitching headlong with a rolling or twisting movement” This I suppose was clear. Just listening to the words and you guess the sound of thunder! Great isn’t it?

Well that’s it! Hope you enjoyed it!

A lesson of war (and english too)

June 7th, 1945 - Normandy, France
Pvt. Lazlo Perestroika (a.k.a. Poor Lazlo)

Cpt. James Ryan: "Ok, private, here's the situation: we're under heavy fire from a nearby enemy artillery unit. If we don't solve this ASAP, the poop will hit the paddles.Problem is: they're right in the middle of a mine field, so we can't just step in their yard. I want you to get near them and kill them with the mortar. Corporal Blaskowitz will help you."

Poor Lazlo: "Roger that, sir!"

Some minutes later, near the enemy artillery unit...

Cpl. Blaskowitz: "Ever fired a mortar? No? Here, give it it whirl!

The Poor Lazlo pressed the fire button, but he had forgotten to open the launch tube so the shell exploded just in front of his face. He died instantly, but Corporal Blaskowitz survived with just a scratch. Private Perestroika was buried and in his thomb you can read the following message:

Private Perestroika, KIA
"Poor Lazlo was a nice guy, but was killed by his own stupidity"
RIP

Right, this story was just an excuse to use some expressions and words. Here come their explanation:

a.k.a. = also known as >> it's used to give another name or nickname for something or someone, for example: Frank Sinatra, aka 'The Voice'
Ok >> everybody knows this is used to answer positively to questions and to say 'everything is fine' and so on, but do you know the origin of this word? Well, there are lots of theories, but one I like is that it comes from the military reports in the American Civil War saying that there were '0 kills' (nobody died) in a mission. '0' can be said 'zero' or 'oh' and 'kills' abbreviated (shortened) to 'k' (pronounced 'kay'). That's why you can also write 'okay' instead of 'ok'.
ASAP = as soon as possible >> it's used when the speaker wants to emphasize the urgency of something and means the same as 'quickly'. Another expression with a similar meaning is 'on the double'.
The poop hit the paddles >> this means the situation will get bad or you'll get in trouble. I don't know if it's a dirty expression, but I wouldn't use it in any situation other than informal ones. By the way, 'poop' means 'shit'and paddles are what you use to move a boat or play table tennis.
Give something a whirl = Give something a try >> it's a expression used to encourage someone to experiment doing something new
KIA = killed in action >> it's a word used in military contexts to say someone died during a battle
R.I.P. >> this one is a classic! It means 'rest in peace' If you like latin quotations, here's the original expression: 'requiescat in pace'.

I hope you have enjoyed my first post in this collaborative blog even though my English writing skills are no match for Tássio-san's.