Shh! You are in a library!

Reader's Digest 11月号の記事 'Laughter The Best Medicine' からの引用です。
A blithering idiot enters a building and goes to the counter. "I would like a large soda, a humburger, and french fries, please," he says.
The woman behind the counter says, "Sir, you are in a library!"
The B.I. looks around and notices others sitting quietly and reading. He leans in to the librarian and whispers, "I would like a large soda, a humburger, and french fries, please."
"blithering" を辞書で見ます。
・Collins Dictionary: stupid; foolish: you blithering idiot
blithering = blathering
私もこれから図書館に本を借りに行きます。

Were you fired?

Reader's Digest 11月号の記事 'All in a Day's Work' からの引用です。
I love when I leave work early to surprise my wife at home and she greets me with those three very special words: "Were you fired?"

not on your life

行方昭夫東大名誉教授の「英文精読術」でモームの『赤毛』を読みました。その中にあった覚えたい表現の三つ目です。
He told him where the skipper wanted to go, and the boy stepped along the bridge. Red prepared to follow him.
"Don't fall in," said Neilson.
"Not on your life."
この口語的な表現 "Not on your life" は何か他の小説でも見かけた気がしますがこの際にしっかりと覚えたいと思います。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Said to emphasize one's refusal to comply with a request.: ‘“I want to see Clare alone.” “Not on your life,” said Buzz’
・Collins Dictionary: If someone says 'Not on your life', they are totally rejecting a suggestion that has been made.: 'You should have given him a lift.'?'In that condition? Not on your life!'
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: to consider valuable, trustworthy, or worthwhile
・Cambridge English Dictionary: said as a way of strongly refusing someone's suggestion or request: "So you're going to bring Kev, are you?" "Not on your life!"
「英文精読術」を読んでの一番の収穫はモームの作品をもっと読んで見たいと思ったことです。

the devil to pay

行方昭夫東大名誉教授の「英文精読術」でモームの『赤毛』を読んでいます。その中にあった覚えたい表現三つの内の二つ目です。
It was as though he spoke from emotion which his intellect found ridiculous. He had said himself that he was a sentimentalist, and when sentimentality is joined with sceptism there is often the devil to pay.
"the devil to pay" を英英辞書で見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Serious trouble to be dealt with.: there was the devil to pay when we got home
・Cambridge English Dictionary: a lot of trouble, difficulty, punishment, anger, etc.: If he catches you going through his drawers there'll be the devil to pay!
・Collins Dictionary: problems or trouble to be faced as a consequence of an action