The English Blog

Cartoon: Britain Strikes While Athens Riots

This cartoon by Mac from the Daily Mail links today's public-sector strikes in Britain with the riots in Athens, where the Greek government yesterday voted through a new package of austerity measures.

A British tourist is getting off the plane, having just arrived for a holiday in Athens. The joke is that he may have escaped 'strike-ridden Britain for a few days', but the situation in Greece is even worse (the burning buildings and smashed windows are evidence of the violent confrontations between protesters and police).

VOCABULARY
-ridden combines with nouns to form adjectives that describe something as having a lot of a particular undesirable thing or quality, or suffering very much because of it. • Central European currencies weakened in early trade on Monday as euro zone finance ministers wavered over further support for debt-ridden Greece.

ALSO READ
• As police crush protests, EU narrowly wins Greek vote (EUobserver.com)
• Violence escalates after Greek vote (Financial Times)

Newsy Video: Federer Crumbles, Tsonga Rises at Wimbledon

Roger Federer collapsed in the Wimbledon quarter-final after being up 2 sets to 0. Sources and transcript >>

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

COMMENT
What are the odds of a Murray vs Tsonga final?

ALSO SEE
• Jo-Wilfried Tsonga stuns Roger Federer over five sets (The Guardian)
• Jo-Wilfried Tsonga shocks Roger Federer (BBC News)
• Tennis Vocabulary (English Club)

Words in the News: Gauntlet

The Guardian reports the coalition government faces the first industrial uprising against its austerity measures as up to 750,000 public servants strike over planned changes to their pensions. Full story >>

VOCABULARY
If you throw down the gauntlet to someone, you say or do something that challenges them to argue, compete, or fight with you.

ORIGIN
The gauntlet in this expression means glove and derives from the medieval French gauntlet, 'a little glove.' Knights of the age of chivalry, though not as noble as they seem in romances, did play by certain rules. When one knight wanted to cross swords with another, he issued a challenge by throwing down his mailed glove, or gauntlet, and his challenge was accepted if the other knight picked up the metal-plated leather glove. This custom gave us the expression 'to throw down the gauntlet,' 'to make a serious challenge." (Source: "Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins" by Robert Hendrickson)

Video: The History of English in Ten Minutes

This is Chapter Eight of The Open University's video cartoon series The History of English in Ten Minutes, which provides a light-hearted look at the history of the English language.

Cartoon: Graphic Cigarette Labels

This cartoon by Dave Granlund relates to news that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is mandating graphic pictures on each pack of cigarettes showing the realities of smoking. As a letter to the Los Angeles Post asks, "Can we soon expect pictures of obese people placed on the front door of every fast-food restaurant? Or pictures of people dying of skin cancer at the entrance to the beach?"

See Daryl Cagle's Political Cartoonists Index for a collection of cartoons on this topic.

ALSO SEE
• Should Meat Be Sold With Warning Labels? (Huffington Post)
• Big Brother gets really ugly (Chicago Tribune)
• New Graphic Cig Labels Meant to Shock (Newsy video)

Words in the News: Helm

The International Monetary Fund has named French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde as its next managing director. Full story >>

VOCABULARY
The helm of a  boat or ship is its wheel or tiller and the position from which the boat is controlled. When someone is at the helm or when they take over the helm, the are in a position of leadership or control. • ZudRangMa Records, under the helm of Maft Sai and Chris Mentis, has been going from strength to strength.

Cartoon: March of the Monster Bins

This cartoon by Mac from The Daily Mail relates to news that giant communal dustbins shared by 40 families or more are being introduced across Britain. Read more >>

A working-class family (almost certainly living on benefits) is shown setting up home in one of the monster bins (some of which are 5ft-high with a 3,200-litre capacity). The upper-class residents who have come to put their rubbish in the bin do not look happy at the prospect. Who said Britain was becoming a classless society!

ON A MORE SERIOUS NOTE
Critics say the communal bins are magnets for rats and often overflow with smelly rubbish due to fly-tippers. Many pensioners say they struggle to carry rubbish bags all the way to the nearest bin – and to lift the lid when they get there. The bins are also said to take up hundreds of valuable car parking spaces. Critics also point out that three people were killed in the space of a year after being crushed or suffocated in collection trucks when they fell asleep in similar-style dumpsters. (Source: MailOnline)

Newsy Video: ICC Issues Arrest Warrant for Muammar Gaddafi

On Monday, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and two of his top aides. Transcript & sources >>

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

ALSO SEE
• War crimes court issues Gaddafi arrest warrant (The Guardian)
• Libya dismisses arrest warrants for Gaddafi and lieutenants (The Independent)

Words in the News: Gloom

The number of graduates applying for each job has doubled since 2009, The Independent reports. It also has a picture of Andy Murray feeling the heat on the court at Wimbledon as temperatures skyrocket. Full story >>

VOCABULARY
Gloom is a feeling of unhappiness and despair. • Amid a sense of deepening panic and gloom, leading European industrialists are to take out full-page adverts in the French and German press on Tuesday pleading for intervention to save the euro.

Video: The Origin of English Words

Explore the origin of some everyday English words in this fun, short video provided by EF Englishtown.

Cartoon: Police Abuse

This cartoon by Paul Thomas from The Daily Express relates to news that the Metropolitan Police, Britain's largest police force with more than 32,000 officers, has issued a card telling officers not to arrest members of the public who verbally abuse them. The memory aid states: 'The courts do not accept police officers are caused harassment, alarm or distress by words such as: 'f**k, c**t, b*****ks, w*****s'. Full story >>

In the cartoon, the joke is that a man uses a swear word when asking a policeman for the time.

COMMENT
So, what do you think those four swear words are? See here to find out.

ALSO READ
• Yobs get OK to call police officers ****s (The Sun)
• Don't nick swearing yobs, PCs told (Express)

Newsy Video: Airlines Consider Using Biofuel

Airlines around the world are testing food for a new and more efficient fuel source. Transcript & sources >>

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

ALSO SEE
• Biomass (Wikipedia)
• KLM plans to fly planes on reused cooking oil (BBC News)

Words in the News: Reward

The brightest students will be handed £20,000 to train as teachers under Government plans to improve state education standards, The Daily Telegraph says. Full story >>

VOCABULARY
A reward is something that you are given, for example, because you have worked hard, or provided a service to the community. • Winning fairly is the best reward. Those who “win” unfairly are the real losers in life.

Cartoon: I'm Broke and I Want Out

This cartoon by Schrank from The Independent on Sunday is a based on Larry Dunst's poster for the Committee to Unsell the (Vietnam) War, which was in turn a parody of JM Flagg's famous 'I Want You' US Army recruitment poster. (Thanks to Monique for her help on this.)

COMMENTARY
The cartoon shows President Obama as Uncle Sam as a soldier begging for money (in the Dunst version, he was begging for peace). 'I Want Out' ('I Want You' in Flagg's original recruitment poster) is a reference to Obama's announcement that he plans to withdraw up to 30,000 US troops from Afghanistan (three Taliban fighters are shown in the background). Obama prefaces his plea with 'I'm broke and ...'. If you are broke, you have no money, and some commentators have suggested that Obama's Afghan retreat is a political move designed to divert money from a costly war (it costs $1.2 million a year to maintain one U.S. soldier in Afghanistan) into boosting the flagging US economy ahead of the 2012 presidential election.

Newsy Video: New York Passes Same-Sex Marriage Bill

The Republican-controlled state senate passed the measure by just four votes late Friday. Governor Andrew Cuomo signed it immediately. Transcript & sources >>

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

ALSO SEE
• Activists celebrate gay marriage victory, but the fight goes on  (The Guardian)
• New York state votes to legalise gay marriage (The Telegraph)

VOCABULARY
"The bill's passage is a win-win for Governor Cuomo, who both proves his dedication to LGBT rights and his ability to negotiate". LGBT is an initialism used since the 1990s as a self-designation by what was formerly known as the "gay community". It refers collectively to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people.