106. Is it okay to say ‘lightnings'?
No, it isn't. Lightning is an uncountable noun and therefore has no plural form. The same is true of ‘thunder'. One talks about a ‘flash of lightning' and the ‘sound of thunder'. If you see or hear quite a few of them, you can say ‘flashes of lightning' and ‘peals of thunder'
*I got out of the pool when I saw several flashes of lightning.
*I heard several peals of thunder before the transformer blew a fuse.
107. “I called you several times. Why didn't you answer the phone?”
“What time did you call?”
“Around one o'clock. Guess you were sleeping.”
“No, I wasn't sleeping. I was TV stoned.”
“TV stoned! What does it mean?”
“Do you know what the expression ‘stoned' means?”
“Sure, I do. It means the person is under the influence of alcohol or drugs. He's had too much to drink. Maybe, he's smoked too much pot. Either way, he is no longer his usual self.”
“Exactly! A person who is TV stoned, sits in front of the box watching his favourite show. He is not aware of the world around him.”
“In other words, other than the TV, nothing else exists.”
“That's right! He is glued to the TV, and in this state, he doesn't feel like talking to anyone. And when somebody does attempt to talk to him, he gets irritated.”
“Which explains why you ignored my phone calls. Can I say, please call back an hour later. Rohit is TV stoned right now.”
“Sounds good! My father is usually TV stoned when he watches the evening news.”
“Your father loves cricket, doesn't he? Has he been...?”
“Not anymore. He says there is too much cricket on TV, and watching the matches...”
“Is probably as exciting as watching paint dry.”
“Is watching paint dry something very exciting?”
“Do you find it exciting?”
“Of course, not. It's boring.”
“Right! When you say that an activity is as exciting as watching paint dry, you mean that it is very, very dull.”
“In my opinion, cookery programmes on television are as interesting as watching paint dry.”
“I'm sure your mother loves those programmes.”
“She does. While we are on the subject of TV, I want to ask you something. Whenever advertisements come on, the volume suddenly increases. Is there a word for this sudden increase in volume?”
“Yes, there is. This phenomenon is called ‘adverblasting'.”
108. “Adverblasting?”
“It's a combination of two words – ‘advertising' and ‘blasting'. Many people find adverblasting very irritating.”
“It's because of adverblasting that I'm forced to keep the remote in my hand all the time.”
“That's not true. You keep the remote in your hand because you like to channel surf.”
“That's true. But when I watch a programme with my mom, I have to be careful not to do it. She finds the constant changing of channels irritating.”
109. “So she keeps you on a tight leash, eh?”
“A tight leash? What are you talking about?”
“When you keep someone on a tight leash, you keep them under control.”
“You keep them under check.”
“I guess you could say that. Our new boss is very strict. He has all of us on a tight leash.”
“Ever since Gopal got into trouble at school, his father has kept him on a tight leash.”
“I think it's about time we introduced some strict laws which will keep our crooked politicians on a tight leash.”
“No chance of that happening. People don't become politicians to serve the people. They become politicians to make money.”
“Sad, but true.”
110. What is the meaning and origin of the expression ‘play possum?
First, let's deal with the pronunciation of ‘possum'. The ‘o' is like the ‘o' in ‘hot', ‘cot', and ‘got', and the ‘u' like the ‘a' in ‘china'. The word is pronounced ‘PO-sem' with the stress on the first syllable. When you ‘play possum', you either pretend to be asleep or dead.
*When he saw the bear, the hunter lay down on the ground and played possum.
*I don't think Renu wants to help us with the cleaning. She's in bed playing possum.
An ‘opossum' or ‘possum' is a small furry animal which when threatened, pretends to be dead. It goes into a coma-like state: the body becomes stiff, and a foul smell emanates from it. Even when its attacker rolls it around and prods it, it shows no signs of life. Thinking that the animal is dead, the would-be-attacker moves on. The possum emerges from its coma-like state sometime later, and goes about its business.
A collection from the Open Page Supplement of The Hindu Newspaper
Courtesy: Sri Upendra, the writer of the above
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