Computer OS

Macs are for those who don't want to know why their computer works.
Linux is for those who want to know why their computer works.
DOS is for those who want to know why their computer doesn't work.
Windows is for those who don't want to know why their computer doesn't work.

The above joke is written by an engineer who doesn't know Android.

garden variety

今日の表現もReader's Digest 1月号のKeep You MARRIAGE HAPPYにあったものです。
Of course, violence or verbal abuse is never acceptable, but the garden variety marital spat? It's actually good for you!
文脈からすると "garden variety marital spa" 結婚生活でのささいな喧嘩と推測できますが、 "garden variety" と言う表現は興味がわきます。　これは辞書に出ていそうです。
・Macmillan Dictionary: ordinary and not very interesting: We saw a show when we were in New York but it was nothing special - just your garden-variety musical.
・Wiktionary: (idiomatic) Ordinary, common, or unexceptional.: I can usually recover from a garden variety cold with rest and fluids.
・Cambridge Idioms Dictionary: very ordinary (always before noun) It's just a garden-variety shopping mall, large but not special in any way.

いつも思うのですが、英語の合成語のハイフンのあるなしは一貫性がありませんね。

keeper marriage

Reader's Digest 1月号の記事 Keep You MARRIAGE HAPPYで昨日話題にした個所のちょと後にも気になる表現がありました。
For instance, a couple go hiking on their first date. They marry, and years later, the wife tells this story: "We got terribly lost that day. It took us hours to find our way back, but we laughed about how neither of us had a good sense of direction. After that, we knew not to plan another hiking trip!" Another wife might tell it a different way: "He lost the map, and it took hours to find our way back. After that, I never wanted to go hiking again." The keeper marriage? The one in which the positive is accentuated an the problems laughed off.
"keeper marriage" って結婚生活を維持できる人の事でしょうか？　そうなら "marriage keeper" で良さそうですが。　"keeper marriage" を辞書で調べましが、その組み合わせでの説明は見あたりませんでした。　しかし "keeper" に次ぎの意味がある事が分かりました。
・Macmillan Dictionary: American informal someone or something that you feel has value and should be kept
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: one suitable for or worth keeping: as (1): a fruit or vegetable that keeps well (2): a fish large enough to be legally caught and kept (3): one having genuine or lasting merit (their new album is a keeper)
・Oxford English Dictionary: informal a person or thing that is valuable and to be cherished: this disc is a keeper and one that belongs on every serious DVD collector’s shelf; if he’s a good communicator and a great listener, he’s a keeper.
　"keeper marriage" は辞書のこの意味と関係がある様な気がしましすが、記事での使用例は完全な文になっていないので解釈が難しい。

追記：　２月７日The Japan Times Onlineに掲載の "These are a few of my favorite things about Japan" by DEBITO ARUDOU に上記に引用した辞書が説明している "keeper" の例がありました。
I'm used to crappy Bic ballpoint pens that seize up in the same groove (and inexplicably only in that groove, no matter how many times you retrace), which you then summarily discard like used toothbrushes. But in Japan, writing implements are keepers, combining quality with punctiliousness.
(Ref. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fl20120207ad.html )

hit the skids

Reader's Digest 1月号の記事 Keep Your MARRIAGE HAPPY からの抜粋です。
Luckily, scientists have identified some simple but powerful indicators that can help you recognise marital strife long before your relationship hits the skids.
"hits the skids" は文脈からして、（この場合結婚生活が）暗礁に乗り上げる様な意味と推測します。　辞書で確認します。
・Cambridge Idioms Dictionary: (Australian informal) to get into a very bad situation, especially by losing your money, home, or job: Poor old Dennis has really hit the skids since he split up with his wife.
・Cambridge Dictionary of American Dictionary: to fail His career really hit the skids after his divorce: Usage notes: often used in the form on the skids ( failing): I can't believe that a whole industry is on the skids.
・American Heritage Dictionary: Slang A path to ruin or failure: His career hit the skids. Her life is now on the skids.
・Dictionary.com: Informal . the downward path to ruin, poverty, or depravity: After losing his job he began to hit the skids.; on the skids, Slang . in the process of decline or deterioration: His career is on the skids.
"hit the skids"/"on the skids" は経験したくありませんが、誰にでもあるんですよね。

clock puncher

Reader's Digest 1月号にあった TAKE THIS JOB AND SHOVE IT と題されたコラムの冒頭の文を引用します。
Please Fire Me, by Jill Morris and Adam Chromy, collects dozen of hilarious vents from anonymous clock punchers forced to put up with various forms of crazy nine-to-five.
"clock punchers" 時計をパンチする人って面白い表現と思いましたが、多分タイムレコーダを押す事から来ているのでしょう。　辞書で確認します。
・Infoplease Dictionary: a worker with a routine job in a factory or office, as one who punches a time clock at the beginning and end of a work shift.
・Urban Dictionary: A clock puncher is someone at a job who is eagerly anticipating the end of the work day and will do almost anything to waste time, not do his/her work and then immediately leave at the time they are supposed to, or immediately following the day's departure of their boss.: Mikey pissed the day away doing no work and then immediately left right after his boss did. What a clock puncher!
日本語ではタイムレコーダしか使いませんが英語では "time clock" とも言うのですね。
ところで、"Please Fire Me" の理由は馬鹿馬鹿しいのが多かったのですが、次ぎの理由は日本でも実際にありそうな話です。
"Please fire me. I just caught my old boss copying down my goals from last year's review and noting them as his own for this year."

slushy

Reader's Digestは健康に関する記事が必ずあります。1月号の記事から引用します。
Fresh fruit coolers: Smoothies are marketed as "health" foods, but they are loaded with sugar. Instead, make a refreshing fresh fruit cooler; blend ice, sparkling water and melon or berries until slushy. Garnish with mint or citrus slices.
北国では今年は特に大雪で苦労しているとニュースは伝えています。先日東京でもほんの少しだけ雪が降りましたが、その翌日の状況に上記引用文に出てきた "slushy" が使えるので覚えたいと思います。
・Vocabulary.com:
1. being or resembling melting snow: “slushy snow”; “deep slushy mud”
2. effusively or insincerely emotional: “slushy poetry”
名詞の "slush" が元になっているので "slush" も確認します。
・Oxford English Dictionary:
1 partially melted snow or ice: the snow was turning into brown slush in the gutterswatery mud.
2 informal excessive sentiment: the slush of Hollywood’s romantic fifties films

in the clutch

Reader's Digest 1月号の単語クイズWord Power! の前置き文を引用します。
Suit up...it's time to see how you play word games in the clutch! We've picked 16 everyday words and phrases that do double duty on the basketball court or in other sports.
このコーナーのクイズはいつも難しいのですが、今回は特に難しく全く分かりませんでした。そんな訳でクイズに出てきた単語は取り上げませんが、上記の引用文中の "in the clutch" の意味は気になります。
・Infoplease Dictionary: Sports: .an extremely important or crucial moment of a game: He was famous for his coolness in pitching in the clutch.
・American Heritage Dictionary: A tense, critical situation: came through in the clutch
引用文の "in the clutch" の意味は多分上記の辞書の説明であっていると思います。

LAUGH

Reader's Digest 1月号のLAUGHにあったQ&Aです。
ちょっと抽象的なQ&A？
Q: Why should you divide sin by tan?
A: Just cos.
笑えた人は学生時代にXX（ヒント：　英語ではありません）が得意だった方でしょう。
借りている区民農園で育てていた小松菜とチンゲン菜の葉を鳥がすっかり食べてしまいました。　冬は虫がいなくて安心と思っていたのですが、冬は食べ物が少なくなるので都会の鳥は必死に食料を探しているのでしょうね。　お陰で我が家の野菜はベランダで栽培しているルッコラ（rocket）とレッドアジアンマスタードだけになりました。

say-so

昨日引用したReader's Digest 1月号の@WORK (Tales from the office water cooler)にあった投書に "We can't just send people down on your say-so," said the specialist impatiently. と言う文がありました。そこで使われている "say-so" の意味は文字通り「そのように言う」と解釈しても通じますが、辞書にはどの様な説明があるか、また例文を探して見たいと思います。
・Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary:
1: a statement that is not supported by any proof: - He said he did the work himself, but we have only his say-so that that's what actually happened.
2 : permission that is given by a person who has authority: - She left the hospital on the say-so of her doctor. - Nothing was done without his say-so.
3 : the power to decide something: - She has the ultimate say-so on/over what will be taught.
・Macmillan Dictionary: on someone’s say-so: based on what someone says, but without any proof from them: The police won’t investigate the claim on the say-so of a known criminal.
ちょっと意外です。　根拠の無い主張にも、許可の様な権威のある発言の意味にもなるのでは文脈をしっかりと見ないといけませんね。

act up

Reader's Digest 1月号の@WORK (Tales from the office water cooler) コーナーの投書から引用します。
The computer in my high school classroom was acting up. After watching me struggle with it, a student exclaimed that my hard drive had crashed. So I called IT for help.
"Can someone look at my computer?" I asked. "The hard drive has crashed."
"We can't just send people down on your say-so," said the specialist impatiently.
"How do you know that's the problem?"
"A student told me," I said.
His next reply was swift. "We'll send someone right over, Sir."
今時の生徒の方が先生よりもコンピュータに詳しいと言う事なのでしょう。
最初の文に出てきた "acting up" は文脈からして、「（コンピュータの）動きがオカシイ 」の意味だと推測できますが、"act up" がその様な意味を持つことは意外に思えます。辞書で確認します。
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: to function improperly: this typewriter is acting up again
・Macmillan Dictionary: if a part of your body or a piece of equipment acts up, it starts to become painful or to develop problems: I hope my back doesn’t start acting up again.
・Cambridge Dictionaries Online:
* If a person, especially a child, acts up, they behave badly: Sophie got bored and started acting up.
* If a machine or part of the body acts up, it does not perform as well as it should: My car always acts up in cold weather.; Her shoulder was acting up (= hurting because of injury).
装置だけではなく、身体の部分、人（子供）も "act up" する事があるのですね。
後半に出てきた "say-so" も面白い表現なので明日取り上げます。