LET'S SPEAK ENGLISH:
Broadcast: Monday, June 5, 1939 at 9:00 PM

First Talk of New Series - Idiom

FIRST TALK - IDIOMS

a) Don't put all your eggs in one basket
b) A pretty kettle of fish!
c) To have other fish to fry
d) To know which side your bread is buttered
e) To look as if butter wouldn't melt In your mouth.
f) A storm in a tea-cup.
g) To get into hot water
h) Don't cry over spilt milk
i) Half-baked
j) To stew in your own juice
k) To jump out of the frying pan into the fire
l) The fat is in the fire
m) To have a finger in the pie
n) Dished
o] To make a hash of things
p) Not to mince matters
q) The cold shoulder.

TRANSCRIPT: FIRST TALK - IDIOM

Let's see what we've got on the menu for breakfast! It says 'eggs'.

That sounds good.

Now, when you buy eggs, remember! DON'T PUT ALL YOUR EGGS IN ONE BASKET. In English idiom, that means don't invest all your savings in one thing. Spread them over several so there's less risk of loss. If all your eggs are in one basket, and the basket is knocked over, you may be ruined.

Nowadays, with Hitler on the march, it's hard to know what to do with your savings. Some people invest them in Switzerland or Holland, others in London or New York. I had the same problem with my deficit at the bank. But now I've decided to transfer half the deficit to Rumania and the other half to Poland. So whichever way Hitler moves I'll get rid of my deficit. I'm not keeping all my eggs in one basket.

The next item on the breakfast menu is fish. What's that standing there on top of the stove ? Why! It's a kettle of fish, and a pretty kettle of fish, too.

But in England you say "THAT'S A PRETTY KETTLE OF FISH!" when things are in a terrible mess. Palestine's a pretty kettle of fish. It's been a pretty kettle of fish for so many years that the kettle is almost an antique by now. And, as for the fish? Well, they've all gone bad long ago. So I'm afraid you can't have them for breakfast.

But I've got OTHER FISH TO FRY. That means, in English idiom, that I've got other things to do. You've probably got lots of other things to do, like clearing out that cupboard and answering all those letters and paying old bills and having your shoes mended. I've always got so much to do, I hardly know where to begin. Until I find out where to begin, I just put everything aside. But I pretend to be terribly busy all the same. Whenever anyone asks me to do something, such as helping his pet charity, I always get out of it gracefully by saying "BUT I'VE GOT OTHER FISH TO FRY". Sometimes they look blankly at me and say, "But I thought your wife did the cooking".

Now, if you have eggs or fish for your breakfast, you'll want some bread and butter too. In these days, it's a good thing TO KNOW WHICH SIDE YOUR BREAD IS BUTTERED. That means that you know how to keep out of trouble and to get on in the world. If you're a Government official, for example, and you want to get on in the world, the first thing to remember is to avoid as much responsibility as possible, at the same time you must create the impression that you're worked to death. Secondly, whenever one of your subordinates has a bright idea, you must be careful to make everyone believe it's your own. Lastly, you must never be enthusiastic but must see difficulties in the simplest matter. In that way you'll win a reputation for caution. If you follow these rules you'll get on splendidly. For YOU KNOW WHICH SIDE YOUR BREAD IS BUTTERED. Or am I being cynical?

If you do know which. side your bread is buttered, you'll probably LOOK AS IF BUTTER WOULDN'T MELT IN YOUR MOUTH. That means that you look absolutely innocent, although you're probably responsible for all the trouble. You're just a villain after all. I always thought you were and I'm not at all surprised that butter doesn't melt in your mouth.

I don't like having butter melt in my mouth. It's hardly a good drink at the best of times. What I like at breakfast is a nice cup of tea. Perhaps you like coffee for breakfast. I'm sorry, I like tea. But I don't like a STORM IN A TEA-CUP. That means to make a lot pf fuss about something which isn't at all important.

Now, sometimes you take your girl friend out to the movies. Don't you say you don't, because I know you do. I've often seen you both there together, in the fifty mil seats, eating nuts out of a bag. Do you remember that awful time when she wanted particularly to see Gary Cooper at the Orion and you insisted on her going to see Ginger Rogers at the Zion? How you stopped in the middle of the street, and argued until she cried? Then she said you didn't love her and you said perhaps you didn't after all. And she began to take off the little ring you'd given her and you wished you'd never been born. So you said you didn't mean it. Neither did she. And so you discovered it was only a storm in the tea cup.

In Palestine there are storms in tea cups all the time. No wonder there are such large imports into Palestine each year. They're mostly tea-cups. For you can't have a storm in a tea-cup without a tea-cup, can you?

Now I like my tea hot, but I don't like to GET INTO HOT WATER.

That means to get into trouble. In the Middle Ages, when people were arrested, they were put into a tank of very hot water to make them confess. Apparently, hot water refreshed the memory. So people took care to avoid breaking the law as they didn't want to get into hot water. Nowadays you can break lots of laws without getting into hot water. There's a law in Tel Aviv against smoking in the motor buses; and there's a notice in each bus which says 'no smoking' . Have you ever seen a bus driver telling a· passenger not to smoke because of the notice? If you travel regularly on the bus, the driver will probably offer you a cigarette himself. You won't GET INTO HOT WATER, neither will he.

No-one ever gets into hot water for disobedience in Palestine. Look at the notices saying 'No admission' that are put up in office buildings outside the rooms that are closed to the public. Do these notices keep people out? Not a bit of it! They seem to act as a direct invitation. If you're feeling lonely and would like a little company, just put up 'No admission' outside the door and you'll soon have a crowd inside.

No one likes paying taxes, and no one in his senses would willingly walk into a tax-collector's office. As the Palestine Government is so short of money nowadays, why not put up a notice with 'No admission' outside the door? The Government would soon get all the money it needed. And if you went inside, you'd only have yourself to blame for getting into hot water.

Now hot water makes good tea, but some people like their tea with milk. Occasionally I'm clumsy and upset the milk all over the breakfast table. But I've long ago learned NOT TO CRY OVER SPILT MILK. That means that I don't worry over things that can't be put right. As a matter of fact, I don't worry very much about things in general. Many people nowadays worry about the future and spend all their time in agony. Agony is a very precious thing and the supply is limited. My father has a motto 'Don't waste good agony'. If you don't waste good agony about the future and don't cry over spilt milk in the past, you'll always be happy. Just like me.

So much for breakfast: let's now think about lunch. Lunch involves far more cooking than breakfast, so we'll have to start in the kitchen.

If you've some food to cook for lunch, you can bake it, or stew it, or fry it. But you must be careful not to have anything HALF-BAKED. If you're HALF-BAKED, it means your ideas are only half cooked, that you're immature and even childish. As a matter of fact, that's just what I expected!

If, on the other hand, you decide on a stew, be careful not to STEW IN YOUR OWN JUICE. If you decide to let someone stew in his own juice, it means that he's got into difficulties through his own fault and that he's got to get out with no help from you. If you're dismissed from your job because you hit the chief clerk on the nose you just have to stew in your own juice. Being dismissed from your job is not very pleasant, but you have only yourself to blame.

But if you don't like stew, perhaps you'd like something fried. Be careful, however, not to let the meat JUMP OUT OF THE FRYING-PAN INTO THE FIRE. In English idiom, to jump out of the frying-pan into the fire means to try to get out of a fix and to find yourself in a worse one. The latest example are our friends the Slovaks. Some of the Slovaks thought they were unhappy with the Czechs so they started to agitate for an independent Slovakia. Well, they've got an independent Slovakia, but I rather fancy that most of them would prefer to be back where they were before. In other words, they've jumped out of the frying-pan into the fire.

Having done that, now they find that the FAT IS IN THE FIRE. That means they're in real trouble. If you say 'now the fat's in the fire', you expect a big row, a regular flare-up. You know how fat flares up when it's alight.

Do you ever come home at three o'clock in the morning having had much too much to drink? If you do and you find your wife waiting for you near the front door with a hammer in her hand, you just say to yourself, "Now the fat is in the fire". It's beautiful English, but I'm afraid it won't save you.

The trouble is that your wife always wants to know what you're doing and where you've been. She likes to HAVE A FINGER IN THE PIE. If you're very inquisitive, my dear listener, and want to interfere in other people's business, that's called having your finger, in the pie. It isn't at all nice to have your finger in the pie. It's really very greedy of you, and I shan't invite you to dinner if I see you doing it again.

As a matter of fact, if you do do it again, you'll be DISHED. That means that you're in such a difficulty that you haven't an idea what to do next. Curiously enough, the word 'dished' comes from the word 'disinherited' - you know, that miserable word that means you don't get a thing when your rich uncle dies. And you were so looking forward to having some of his money to pay your shtarot. Now you can't pay them and you're just dished. But it's all your own fault if you are dished. You probably weren't kind enough to your rich uncle when he was alive. You didn't take him to sit on the beach at Tel Aviv in the autumn and give him 'tiras'; you didn't take him to sit on the beach in the spring and give him 'mitz'; you didn't even take him to sit on the beach in the summer and give him 'esquimo'. You just neglected him. Having neglected him for so long, the result was that you MADE A HASH OF THINGS. That means, in English idiom, that you've muddled everything up, like the meat that's cut up and cooked in gravy to make a hash. It's funny, isn't it, what a lot of phrases there are in English for making a hash of things ? The Englishman loves hash and he loves messing about and he loves to muddle. Every people has its own slogan. In Tel Aviv they say Kadima, in Italy they say Avanti, in England they say 'Muddle through'.

You can muddle through in everything in England except while playing games. That's serious, If you see on the newspaper posters in London the words in large red letters 'England's Defeat' it doesn't mean Munich but a cricket match in Australia.

Do you know that little English rhyme?

"As I was playing golf one day, I heard the German troops had landed:
"All our men had run away; all our ships were stranded:
"And the thought of England's shame
"Almost put me off my game."

Perhaps I'm a little bitter in my criticism but I don't like to mince matters. The phrase NOT TO MINCE MATTERS comes from the kitchen. In English idiom it means not to make things pleasant or acceptable - like mince meat chopped up fine. Not to mince matters means to present things in their true light, like last week's cold shoulder, of mutton.

To get THE COLD SHOULDER, however, means in English idiom to be shunned - not to be warmly received. Do you know the New Testament story of the Prodigal Son and the Fatted Calf? There was once an Irish lawyer who said that his client had come home to his father expecting to find the fatted calf; but all he'd got was the cold shoulder.

But I shan't treat you that way. I shan't receive you coldly or give you the cold shoulder. I'm fond of you, my dear listener, because I need your help. I want you to send me suggestions for my future talks: and to let me know of any special difficulties you have in English that you want me to. discuss. In particular, I need good examples of Pinglish; that is, incorrect Palestinian English. So send me any Pinglish phrases you see on signboards or in the newspapers. You can address your letter to: - "The President of the Brighter English League, care of The Palestine Broadcasting Service, Jerusalem."

Good night.