စိမ့္စမ္းေရ

The word buff has several meanings. Buff is a light yellow color. Buff is also a soft cloth used to rub a surface until it looks bright and shiny.

Yet, these meanings are old, and their history is not known. The meaning of buff that we do know about is one that describes a person. A buff is someone who has a strong, special interest in something. For example, someone who loves jazz music is a jazz buff. Someone who is deeply interested in the American Civil War is a Civil War buff.

This meaning of the word is known to be American. Its use started almost two hundred years ago in New York City.

At that time, New York was a growing city. There were no huge tall buildings of steel and stone. Buildings then were made of wood and brick. Many were old and fires often broke out in them. The city did not have well-organized fire departments. So, when a fire alarm bell rang, men near the sound of the fire bell dropped what they were doing and rushed out to fight the fire.

Later, fire companies were organized with men who were trained to fight fires. They were not paid to do this. They earned their money at other jobs, but dropped what they were doing when the fire bell rang.

In cold weather, many of these young volunteer firefighters wore coats made of the skin of buffalo to keep them warm and dry. Often, when the fire bell rang, other men in the city rushed to help put out the fire. They also wore coats of buffalo skin. In time, any man who rushed to fight a fire became known as a fire buff because of the buffalo coat he wore.

Time, however, has a way of bringing changes. Cities organized fire departments. Firemen became professionals. They are paid to do their job.

Yet, even today, we still have fire buffs who seem to appear at every fire in an area. Sometimes they prevent firemen from doing their jobs.

A leading New York newspaper published a story with the headline, “Fire Buffs Barred From Blaze." The story was about an order from New York’s fire commissioner. He was angry. He told reporters that his firefighters were having trouble getting near the fire, because fire buffs who wanted to help were really getting in the way. So, he said, he did not want anyone but firefighters to go to a fire.

Fire buffs are still around, but the word has taken on a wider meaning. It includes all who have a deep interest in something or some activity. And, so we can thank the American buffalo that once wondered the open plains for this meaning of the word buff.

by VOA: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/words_and_their_stories.cfm

the word came to mean any piece of good luck. American gold miners borrowed the word from the Spanish, calling the discovery of gold a bonanza. A mine in Nevada which unexpectedly turned out to be rich in gold was given the name of Bonanza.

Words and their Stories, a program about special American expressions, often known as idoms and sometimes as colloquialisms or slangs.

recently, public lotteries in the United States were illegal. But many states, now have official lotteries. Those who have a ticket with the winning number receive big prizes. What a bonanza for the winning ticket holder!

The phrase bonanza means a rich strike, a good piece of luck. The word comes from the Latin bonus meaning ‘good.’ Spanish sailors change it into ‘bonanza’ to mean good fair weather. After sailing through stormy days at the mercy of the wind, could anything be more welcome, a better piece of luck than calm waters, after being tossed about by a violent sea? For a sailor, that was the best of bonanza.

writer says that four men, James C. Flood, W.S. O’Brian, John W. Mackay and James G. Fair got so rich from the gold and silver mines of the West, that they were called the Bonanza Kings.

The word bonanza remained part of the language of the mining camps of the American West. Then, the word spread far and wide with new discoveries of gold.

In the summer of 1896, an unusually rich deposit of gold was discovered on a creek near the Klondike river in the Yukon Territory of Alaska. The miners soon call it Bonanza Creek. It was said that nuggets of gold lay loosely on top of the ground.

The word bonanza now becomes a household word across the country. The discovery in Alaska started another gold rush. Thousands of gold seekers began to head for Alaska. In April 1897, gold claims along the Bonanza Creek numbered only about one hundred and fifty. One year and a half later, in September 1898, such claims rose to seventeen thousands.

The rich discovery of gold in the Yukon made exciting news all over the world. Everybody now knows that a bonanza was a great piece of luck that accidentally fell into one’s lap.

The word bonanza is still used today although the days of gold ruches seemed to be things of the past. Now, a piece of good luck is described by a weaker word - windfall. When a man, for example, discovers that at the end of the year, he does not owe the government any more taxes, he feels as if that were a bonanza, but he just describes it as a windfall.

by VOA: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/words_and_their_stories.cfm

Words and Their Stories - a program in Special English Our word today is "bogus" – b-o-g-u-s. Anything that is bogus is not real. It pretends to be real and may even look real, but it is not. In fact, the only thing that is real about "bogus" is that it is pure American-born in the early 1800's. No one is sure where the word came from.

The first time it appeared in print was in 1827 in Ohio. At that time police found a group of men who were coining false or counterfeit money. A large crowd gathered around to look at the strange machine that was used to make the money. Someone in the crowd said that the machine looked like a bogus. Well, the next day, the local newspaper used the word, "bogus," and it became part of the language.

From then on, the machine used by counterfeiters was called a "bogus press." Of course, it was easy to widen the use of the word now that it had been invented. Counterfeit or false money was soon called "bogus money." And as the years passed, any article that was not the real was called "bogus." But that is only one story about the birth of bogus.

The Boston Courier, a newspaper that died a long time ago, said that the word, "bogus," came from a famous swindler with the Italian name of Borghese. "Borghese," the paper said, "became famous by writing bad checks, cashing them at banks and stores, then leaving town in a hurry. In 1837, Borghese was known throughout the South and the West for his worthless checks, bills of exchange, and notes."

"In time," the newspaper said, "the name, Borghese, was shortened to become 'bogus.'"

Today, we have "bogus money," "bogus mines," "bogus hair," "bogus diamonds," and so on.

Speaking of bogus diamonds reminds me of a vacation I took many years ago in New York City. I was waiting for a train home after two delightful weeks in the city, when a man came up to me and asked softly if I would like to buy a genuine diamond ring.

His manner led me to believe that perhaps he had found the ring and wanted money quickly. Little did I realize that he was what is known as a small-time swindler, a cheat, a con man. He showed me the ring and asked for $15.

It looked real, but then I said, "A real diamond will scratch glass, won't it?" He pulled me over to a store window and scratched the diamond against the glass and made a deep cut. I gave him the money. I put the ring on my finger and got on the train, feeling I had made a good bargain. Why, the diamond would pay for my trip!

When I got home, I showed the ring to my wife. She asked me to take it off my finger which I did. My finger was green. The ring itself was copper, not gold or gold plate. The diamond was a bogus diamond. I started to get angry.
"Why that cheat!" I said. "That swindler!"
My wife looked at me and smiled.
"Yes," she said, "he was a swindler but so were you. You knew, when you paid him $15, that a real diamond is worth much more than that. So both of you were trying to get the better of the other. Only you lost."

I looked at my bogus diamond and then put it away. I still have it just to remind myself that what might seem real could be bogus.

by VOA: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/words_and_their_stories.cfm

Today, we have an especially heated one -- inflation. Nobody seems to have a solution for inflation -- not one that is satisfactory to everybody.

But one was offered by President Ford on national television. He used the phrase, "to bite the bullet." The words are not new, but they spread across the country.

Mr. Ford called on Americans to bite the bullet and make personal sacrifices. This, he said, would help to halt inflation.

He urged them to eat less, use less gasoline, to spend less, and save more. He appealed to them to do whatever was necessary to fight inflation, no matter how unpleasant.

Such is the meaning of the phrase, "to bite the bullet" -- to do something quickly with no further delay, no matter how painful the action may be.

But what does "biting the bullet" have to do with all this? A reasonable question. This is the explanation:

As we all know, people in great pain sometimes tighten their fists or clench their teeth or bite down hard on a finger. It seems to ease their pain.

On a battle field, one may not always find pain-killing drugs, and it is said that during emergency operations soldiers will, in a way of speaking, bite the bullet to ease their suffering, so that when one is ready to bite the bullet, he is prepared to make a painful decision and suffer whatever it may bring.

The phrase is not very old. It seems to have come to life in the 1960's. Former President Nixon used it in 1968.

He asked Congress to bite the bullet and approve his proposal for a tax increase -- a ten-percent surcharge on income taxes. This is not to say he was the first to use the expression.

The country has heard many proposals for halting inflation. One of the major proposals has been wage and price controls. It has many supporters and many opponents.

Chief among its opponents is the President himself. Like others, he feels that wage and price laws never work well. However, Mr. Ford's own program, "biting the bullet and making personal sacrifices," has just as many opposed to it. They feel it is weak and ineffective.

Be that as it may, inflation goes on and has become everybody's problem: the housewife, the worker, and government officials -- not only national leaders but state governors as well, and city and town officials.

The problem became so acute in New York that the mayor promised to make tough decisions, and what he did amounted to little.

One politician said the mayor was nibbling the bullet just making little bites. And that, in a way, expresses the feeling of many of the opponents of President Ford's program of biting the bullet and voluntary personal sacrifices.

They complain that there is no real bite being proposed by the President just gentle little nibbles.

Narrator : Faith Lapidus

Today we explain some expressions about birds. For example, if something is for the birds, it is worthless or not very interesting. Someone who eats like a bird eats very little. And a birds-eye view is a general look at an area from above.

Did you know that if you tell a young person about the birds and the bees you are explaining about sex and birth? Have you ever observed that birds of a feather flock together? In other words, people who are similar become friends or do things together. Here is some good advice: a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. This means you should not risk losing something you have by trying to get more of something you do not have.

Sometimes I can do two things by performing only one action. This is called killing two birds with one stone. But I would never really kill any birds. I love all kinds of animals. This is a real feather in my cap. It is something to be proud of.

Most of the people I work with are early birds. They believe that the early bird catches the worm. They think that a person who gets up early in the morning for work has the best chance of success. Everyone in my office works hard, but some people have had their wings clipped. Their jobs have been limited. This is because the office is organized by pecking order. People with more years and experience are given more responsibility.

Some bird expressions are about crows, chickens and ducks. For example, when I am driving, I always travel as the crow flies. I go the most direct way. Anyone who eats crow has to admit a mistake or defeat.

UKT: See my note on raven which to many is a very large "stupid" crow.

Now let’s talk about my sister. She is not very young. She is no spring chicken. She will work any job for chicken feed -- a small amount of money. She is easily frightened. For example, she is too chicken-livered to walk down a dark street alone at night. Often she will chicken out – she will not go out alone at night.

My sister was an ugly duckling. She looked strange when she was a child, but she grew up to be a beautiful woman. Sometimes she thinks too much about having something in the future before she really has it. She counts her chickens before they are hatched. Sometimes her chickens come home to roost. That means her actions or words cause trouble for her. However, my sister does not worry about what people say about her. Criticism falls off her like water off a duck’s back.

Politicians are sometimes considered lame ducks after losing an election. They have little time left in office and not much power. Congress holds a lame duck session after an election. Important laws are not passed during this period.

Some expressions describe people who are important, or who at least who think they are. One such expression is, bigwig.


In the seventeenth century, important men in Europe began to wear false hair, called wigs. As years passed, wigs began to get bigger. The size of a man's wig depended on how important he was. The more important he was -- or thought he was -- the bigger the wig he wore. Some wigs were so large they covered a man's shoulders or back.


Today, the expression bigwig is used to make fun of a person who feels important. People never tell someone he is a bigwig. They only use the expression behind his back.


Big wheel is another way to describe an important person. A big wheel may be the head of a company, a political leader, a famous movie star. They are big wheels because they are powerful. What they do affects many persons. Big wheels give the orders. Other people carry them out. As in many machines, a big wheel makes the little wheels turn.


Big wheel became a popular expression after World War Two. It probably comes from an expression used for many years by people who fix parts of cars and trucks. They said a person rolled a big wheel if he was important and had influence.


The top of something is the highest part. So it is not surprising that top is part of another expression that describes an important person. The expression is, top banana. A top banana is the leading person in a comedy show. The funniest comedian is called the top banana. The next is second banana. And so on.


Why a banana? A comedy act in earlier days often included a part where one of the comedians would hit the others over the head with a soft object. The object was shaped like a yellow fruit: the banana.


Top banana still is used mainly in show business. Yet the expression also can be used to describe the top person in any area.


A kingpin is another word for an important person. The expression comes from the game of bowling. The kingpin is the number one pin. If hit correctly with the bowling ball, the kingpin will make all the other nine pins fall. And that is the object of the game.


So, the most important person in a project or business is the kingpin. If the kingpin is removed, the business or project is likely to fail.


Kingpin is often used to describe an important criminal, or the leader of a criminal gang. A newspaper may report, for example, that police have arrested the suspected kingpin of a car-stealing operation.

The cat has given language many special expressions that show you what its life among men has been like. For the most part, "a cat's life" has been as bad as "a dog's life". But there are a few phrases that show something else. One of them is the expression, "to bell the cat." When a man is given a job that may prove disastrous, he is said to be trying to bell the cat. The phrase comes from an old story.


A family of mice could get no food because of its fear of a cat. The mice decided that the best thing to do would be to tie a bell around the cat's neck. That would tell them where the cat was. All agreed that it was a splendid idea until one wise old mouse stepped up and asked, "Who will bell the cat?"


There are a number of stories on the beginnings of the expression, "to grin like a Cheshire cat." Most of us first heard of the Cheshire cat from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.


When Alice found a large cat in the kitchen grinning from ear to ear, she was indeed surprised. She did not know cats grinned. "Ah," she was told, "but this cat is from Cheshire" -- a county in England. Later, as the cat began to leave the kitchen, its tail went first and the grin was the last to disappear from sight.


However, as we are told, the mysterious smile of the cat from Cheshire was well-known long before Lewis Carroll. It seems that some sign painter created the mystery. He painted a picture of a smiling lion on the sign of an inn in Cheshire. It was a strange smile, for the painter tried to paint a snarling lion. The phrase, "to grin like a Cheshire cat," is not as widely used today as it had been in years past. But the expression, "to be somebody's cat's-paw, " still is. It means to be used, to be fooled, to be made to do someone else's dirty work.


The word "catty," to describe a malicious person who likes to gossip and say unpleasant things about another seems to be lasting forever. That is because such people never disappear. They show a cat's cutting claws and act like an angry spitting cat.


In recent years, American jazz musicians have made cat a household word. Its use has spread over a wide area. Many are now "cool cats." Cat in some places has taken the place of the word, "man." For example, it is no longer that man but that cat. Rich men are fat cats. Some are just plain cats, others are cool cats, and still others are sharp cats. In the words of the great American horn player, Louis Armstrong: "I had on a brand-new Stetson hat, my fine black suit, and new patent-leather shoes. I was a sharp cat."


Is it true that a cat has nine lives? So we are told. It must be true. How else could the cat have survived?

Today’s word is belittle. It was first used by Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States.


Many years ago, a French naturalist, the Count de Buffon, wrote some books about natural history. The books were a great success even though some critics did not like them. Some critics said, “Count Buffon is more of a poet than a scientist.”


Thomas Jefferson did not like what the Count had said about the natural wonders of the New World. It seemed to Jefferson that the Count had gone out of his way to speak of natural wonders in America as if they were unimportant.


This troubled Thomas Jefferson. He, too, was a naturalist, as well as a farmer, inventor, historian, writer and politician. He had seen the natural wonders of Europe. To him, they were no more important than those of the New World.


In seventeen eighty-eight, Thomas Jefferson wrote about his home state, Virginia. While writing, he thought of its natural beauty and then of the words of Count de Buffon. At that moment, Jefferson created a new word – belittle. He said, “The Count de Buffon believes that nature belittles her productions on this side of the Atlantic.”


Noah Webster, the American word expert, liked this word. He put it in his English language dictionary in eighteen-oh-six. ‘Belittle – to make small, unimportant.’


Americans had already accepted Jefferson’s word and started to use it. In seventeen ninety-seven, the Independent Chronicle newspaper used the word to describe a politician the paper supported. “He is an honorable man,” the paper wrote, “so let the opposition try to belittle him as much as they please.”


In eighteen forty-four, the Republican Sentinel of Virginia wrote this about the opposition party: “The Whigs may attempt to belittle our candidates … that is a favorite game of theirs.”


In eighteen seventy-two, a famous American word expert decided that the time had come to kill this word. He said, “Belittle has no chance of becoming English. And as more critical writers of America, like those of Britain, feel no need of it, the sooner it is forgotten, the better.”


This expert failed to kill the word. Today, belittle is used, not only in the United States and England, but in other countries where the English language is spoken. It seems that efforts to belittle the word did not stop people from using it.

Baseball is America’s national sport. So it is not unusual that many popular expressions come from baseball. But first, let me explain a little about the game.

Each baseball team has nine players. The pitcher of one team throws the ball to a batter from the other team. The batter attempts to hit the ball. If he misses, it is called a strike. If a batter gets three strikes, he loses his turn at bat and is called out.

The batter also is out if he hits the ball in the air and an opposing player catches it. But if the batter hits the ball and it is not caught, the batter tries to run to one or more of the four bases on the field. The batter can run to all four bases if he hits the ball over the fence or out of the ballpark. Such a hit is called a home run.

Now, here are some common expressions from baseball. Someone who is on the ball is intelligent and able to do a good job. But a person who threw a curve ball did something unexpected. Someone who steps up to the plate is ready to do his or her job. A pinch hitter takes the place of someone else at a job or activity.

A person who strikes out or goes down swinging attempted something but failed. We also might tell the person that three strikes and you are out. But someone who hit a home run or hit it out of the park did something extremely well.

Sometimes I have to give information quickly, without time to think it over. Then I would say something right off the bat. If someone is doing an extremely good job and is very successful, you might say he or she is batting one thousand.

If I say I want to touch base with you, I will talk to you from time to time about something we plan to do. I might say I touched all the bases if I did what is necessary to complete a job or activity. And if I covered my bases I was well prepared. However, someone who is way off base did something wrong or maybe even dishonest or immoral. A person with strange ideas might be described as out in left field.

Let us say I want to sell my car but I do not know exactly how much it is worth. If someone asks me the price, I might give a ballpark figure or a ballpark estimate.

If someone offers me an amount that is close to my selling price, I might say the amount is in the ballpark. However, if I say we are not in the same ballpark, I mean we cannot agree because my ideas are too different from yours.

Finally, when a situation changes completely, we say that is a whole new ballgame.

Before television, American Presidents found it difficult to reach the people of the small towns and villages for political support --grass-roots support as it is called. At first, political leaders or candidates for office had to travel by train to small out-of-the-way places. They were called whistle stops because trains did not usually stop there.

You had to use a special whistle to make them do so. With the arrival of the train, a small group of country people would gather around the back of the last car of the train. On the open platform, the President or presidential candidate would speak directly to those who came to hear him. It was an event to be remembered.

Whistle-stop campaigning was an old political tradition that came from the earliest days of American independence. Of course, train-travel was slow. But, then, travel by air came into use. It was faster, and a candidate could cover much more ground. That was "barnstorming" in the old sense of the word.

And many Presidents and candidates were very successful because they showed a special skill in being able to talk to grass-roots groups -- to the farmers and agricultural workers of the nation and to the industrial workers of small towns. Some modern Presidents went barnstorming when they could not get the approval of Congress for important programs, or failed to get legislative support in the field of foreign policy.

The phrase, "to barnstorm," is an old expression that was taken from the theater. It goes far back to the time when there were few theaters or halls for traveling actors or entertainers. They produced their plays in the barns of country villages. Many of these traveling players were ham actors. That is how many people felt about them.

They seemed to overact and spoke their lines like amateurs and badly trained actors. But they thought their acting was so effective that they took their audiences by storm. Thus, the phrase, "to barnstorm." Some of these village-barn audiences, however, liked this noisy style of acting and speaking, and groups of ham actors took the barns by storm like soldiers.

Some time around the middle 1800‘s "barnstorming" became part of American political language to describe quick visits by political speakers to small country towns. Some may have made speeches in barns, but usually they were made in the village square, out in the open.

Barnstorming, as we have long known it, is slowly disappearing. In most out-of-the-way villages, people can listen to the President or political candidates on television. Still, many political candidates like meeting people face to face and talking directly to them. Moreover, television is very costly, and many candidates do not have the money to campaign by TV. So, the old methods of campaigning are not completely dead. There is more life to "barnstorming" than the cold, stagy image of a television screen.

Baloney is a kind of sausage that many Americans eat often. The word also has another meaning in English. It is used to describe something – usually something someone says – that is false or wrong or foolish.

Baloney sausage comes from the name of the Italian city, Bologna. The city is famous for its sausage, a mixture of smoked, spiced meat from cows and pigs. But, boloney sausage does not taste the same as beef or pork alone.

Some language experts think this different taste is responsible for the birth of the expression baloney. Baloney is an idea or statement that is nothing like the truth … in the same way that baloney sausage tastes nothing like the meat that is used to make it.

Baloney is a word often used by politicians to describe the ideas of their opponents.

The expression has been used for years. Fifty years ago, a former governor of New York state, Alfred Smith, criticized some claims by President Franklin Roosevelt about the successes of the Roosevelt administration. Smith said, “No matter how thin you slice it, it is still baloney.”

A similar word has almost the same meaning as baloney. It even sounds almost the same. The word is blarney. It began in Ireland about sixteen hundred.

The lord of Blarney castle, near Cork, agreed to surrender the castle to British troops. But he kept making excuses for postponing the surrender. And, he made them sound like very good excuses, “this is just more of the same blarney.”

The Irish castle now is famous for its Blarney stone. Kissing the stone is thought to give a person special powers of speech. One who has kissed the Blarney stone, so the story goes, can speak words of praise so smoothly and sweetly that you believe them, even when you know they are false.

A former Roman Catholic bishop of New York City, Fulton Sheen, once explained, “Baloney is praise so thick it cannot be true. And blarney is praise so thin we like it.”

Another expression is pulling the wool over someone’s eyes. It means to make someone believe something that is not true. The expression goes back to the days when men wore false hair, or wigs, similar to those worn by judges today in British courts.

The word wool is a popular joking word for hair. If you pulled a man’s wig over his eyes, he could not see what was happening. Today, when you pull the wool over someone’s eyes, he cannot see the truth.

Every week at this time, we tell about popular American words and expressions. Some of these are very old. Some are new. Together, they form the living speech of the American people.

Today we tell about the expression "down to earth." Down to earth means being open and honest. It is easy to deal with someone who is down to earth.

A person who is down to earth is a pleasure to find. He or she accepts other people as equals. A down to earth person is the opposite of someone who acts important or proud.

Down to earth people could be important members of society. But they do not consider themselves to be better than others who are less important. They do not let their importance "go to their heads." Someone who lets something go to his head feels he is better than others. He has a "big head."

A person who is filled with his own importance and pride is said to have "his nose in the air." Often the person who has a big head and his nose in the air has no reason to feel better than others. He surely is the opposite of someone who is down to earth.

Americans use another expression that is similar in some ways to down to earth. The expression is "both feet on the ground." Some one with both feet on the ground is a person with a good understanding of reality. She has what is called "common sense." She may have dreams. But she does not allow them to block her understanding of what is real.

The opposite kind of person is one who has his "head in the clouds." Someone with his head in the clouds is a person whose mind is not on what is happening in real life. Such a person may be called a "daydreamer."

Sometimes a person with his head in the clouds can be brought back to reality. Sharp words from a teacher, for example, can usually get a daydreaming student to put both feet on the ground.

The person who is down to earth usually has both feet on the ground. But the opposite is not always true. Someone with both feet on the ground may not be as open and easy to deal with as someone who is down to earth.

When we have both our feet firmly on the ground, and when we are down to earth we do not have our noses in the air. We act honestly and openly to others. Our lives are like the ground below us – solid and strong.

There are many American expressions that use parts of the body. These include the eyes, ears, nose, mouth and even the heart. Today we will tell you some expressions that use other body parts – the back, shoulders and chest.

When I am facing a lot of pressure at work, my back and neck will start to hurt. Sometimes, this tension is the result of too much work. I have too many things to do because my supervisor is on my back all the time. In other words, my employer is always telling me to do things.

Sometimes, I want my employer to get off my back! I want her to stop criticizing me and making too many demands on my time. I can not say this, however. I would never turn my back on her and refuse to help when there is a need. If I did refuse to help, my supervisor might say bad things about me behind my back. She might criticize me when I am not present. This would surely be a stab in the back. It is never kind to unfairly harm or say bad things about other people.

Sometimes, when I am very productive in my job, my employer gives me a pat on the back. She praises my work. She might even say “ I will scratch your back if you will scratch mine.” This means she will do something for me, if I do something helpful for her in exchange. Such an offer usually comes straight from the shoulder. My supervisor has a very direct, open and honest way of speaking.

I know that my employer carries a lot on her shoulders. She is responsible for many things at the office. And because she is so important, she sometimes gets to rub shoulders with the top officials. She gets to spend time with some very important people.

I believe the top official values my superior. He never gives her the cold shoulder. He is never unfriendly to her. He always treats her like she is an important part of the organization.

I also value my supervisor. In fact, I think she is very effective in her job. Of course, I could yell my opinion at the top of my lungs, or as loudly as I possibly could. It might even feel good to get my emotions off my chest. It is always helpful to tell people how you feel so that your emotions do not trouble you.

But it is not necessary for me to praise my superior. Most of my co-workers feel the exact same way about her. So, I think I will just save my breath. I will keep silent because talking or repeating myself will not do any good.

Today we tell about the expression, "apple pie order." It means in perfect order, very well organized.

Nobody is sure where and when the expression apple pie order began. Some say that Scottish and English writers used the expression a long time ago. Others say it first was used in the northeastern American states known as New England.

The housewives of New England cut their apples in even slices. Then they filled pie pans with them in an organized way, row upon row. As one writer said, the women of New England loved to have everything in its place. This perhaps explains why it generally is believed that the expression apple-pie order began in New England.

Another old expression describes the opposite condition – wild disorder. That expression is apple of discord. It comes from ancient mythology.

The myth says that all the gods and goddesses were sitting around the table to celebrate the marriage of Thetis and Peleus. One of the goddesses, Discord, was a troublemaker. She threw a golden apple on the table to be given as a prize to the most beautiful goddess.

It was not an easy decision to make. How could they choose among Juno, Minerva and Venus. Paris was given the task of deciding. He decided to give the golden apple to Venus. Juno and Minerva were very angry and threatened him. This, the myth says, began the long Trojan war.

At one time, the tomato was called a love apple. That was a mistake. This is how the mistake happened.

In the sixteenth century, Spain imported the tomato from South America after Spanish explorers had landed there. Spain then exported the tomato to Morocco. Italian traders carried it on to Italy. The Italian name for the tomato was pomo di Moro – apple of the Moors.

When French growers imported it from Italy, they thought di Moro meant d'amour, the French word for love. And so pomo di Moro became the apple of love.

People believe many things about the apple. One belief is that it has great powers of keeping people healthy. A very common expression is "An apple a day keeps the doctor away."

Another belief is based on fact. The expression is "One rotten apple spoils the barrel." When an apple begins to go bad, it ruins all the other apples around it in the container. The expression has come to mean that one bad person in a group can cause everyone to act bad.

Now, the VOA Special English program WORDS AND THEIR STORIES.

Today’s program is all about eyes. When it comes to relationships, people’s eyes can be a window into their hearts. This means that their eyes can tell a lot about how they feel. We will tell a story about a man and woman who are teachers at the same school. The woman is interested in the man. She uses many methods to catch his eye, or get him to notice her. Once he sets eyes on her, or sees her, she might try to get him interested in her by acting playful. In other words, she might try to make eyes at him or give him the eye.

Let us suppose that this man gets hit between the eyes. In other words, the woman has a strong affect on him. He wants to spend time with her to get to know her better. He asks her out on a date.

She is so happy that she may walk around for days with stars in her eyes. She is extremely happy because this man is the apple of her eye, a very special person. She might tell him that he is the only person she wants, or “I only have eyes for you.”

On their date, the couple might eat a meal together at a restaurant. If the man is really hungry, his eyes might be bigger than his stomach. He might order more food than he can eat. When his food arrives at the table, his eyes might pop out. He might be very surprised by the amount of food provided. He might not even believe his own eyes. In fact, all eyes would be watching him if he ate all the food. This might even cause raised eyebrows. People might look at the man with disapproval.

During their dinner, the couple might discuss many things. They might discover that they see eye to eye, or agree on many issues. They share the same beliefs and opinions. For example, they might agree that every crime or injury should be punished. That is, they firmly believe in the idea of an eye for an eye. They might also agree that it is wrong to pull the wool over a person’s eyes. This means to try to trick a person by making him believe something that is false. But the man and woman do not believe in the evil eye, that a person can harm you by looking at you.

The next day, at their school, the woman asks the man to keep an eye on, or watch the young students in her class while she is out of the classroom. This might be hard to do when the teacher is writing on a board at the front of the classroom. To do so, a teacher would need to have eyes in the back of his head. In other words, he would know what the children are doing even when he is not watching them.

Every week at this time we tell the story of words and expressions used in American English. Some of them are old. Some are new. Together, they form the living speech of the American people.

Some popular expressions are a mystery. No one is sure how they developed. One of these is the expression, carry a chip on your shoulder. A person with a chip on his shoulder is a problem for anybody who must deal with him. He seems to be expecting trouble. Sometimes he seems to be saying, “I’m not happy about anything, but what are you going to do about it?”

A chip is a small piece of something, like a chip of wood. How did this chip get on a person’s shoulder? Well, experts say the expression appears to have been first used in the United States more than one hundred years ago.

One writer believes that the expression might have come from an old saying. The saying warns against striking too high, or a chip might fall into your eye. That could be good advice. If you strike high up on a tree with an axe, the chip of wood that is cut off will fall into your eye. The saying becomes a warning about the dangers of attacking people who are in more important positions than you are.

Later, in the United States, some people would put a real chip on their shoulder as a test. They wanted to start a fight. They would wait for someone to be brave enough to try to hit it off.

The word chip appears in a number of special American expressions. Another is chip off the old block. This means that a child is exactly like a parent.

This expression goes back at least to the early sixteen hundreds. The British writer of plays, George Colman, wrote these lines in seventeen sixty-two. “You’ll find him his father’s own son, I believe. A chip off the old block, I promise you!”

The word chip can also be used in a threatening way to someone who is suspected of wrongdoing. An investigator may say, “We’re going to let the chips fall where they may.” This means the investigation is going to be complete and honest. It is also a warning that no one will be protected from being found guilty.

Chips are often used in card games. They represent money. A poker player may, at any time, decide to leave the game. He will turn in his chips in exchange for money or cash.

This lead to another meaning. A person who finished or died was said to have cashed in his chips. Which is a way of saying it is time for me to finish this program.