romantic type vs. no-nonsense guy

Reader's Digest 4月号の記事 'Laughter the Best Medicine' からの引用です。
An elderly couple had just learned how to send text messages. The wife was a romantic type, and the husband was more of a no-nonsense guy. One afternoon, the wife decided to send her husband a text. She wrote, "If you are laughing, send me your smile. If you are crying, send me your tears. And if you are sleeping, send me your dreams. I love you. " Her husband texted back," I'm on the toilet, please advise."

LOL!!!

pound

Reader's Digest 4月号の記事 'An Old Dog's New Trick' の冒頭を引用します。
There was an old dog in the middle of the road who seemed lost. You could tell he had loving owners because he looked well-fed and he had no street sense. The basset hound was blocking a busy street, and everyone was stopped. A man was able to coax the dog out of the road with a ham sandwitch he has packed for his lunch. The dog had no collar. I said I would take him to the police station. When I did, the police told me they did not handle animals. They said I would have to take him to the pound 20 miles away.
最後の文に出てきた "pound" の意味が分からないので辞書を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: A place where stray animals, especially dogs, may be officially taken and kept until claimed by their owners or otherwise disposed of.: ‘Aided by a donkey sanctuary welfare officer, he followed a trail that led him to animal pounds and fields in remote areas in the black of night.’

・Cambridge English Dictionary: a place where pets that are lost or not wanted are kept: We got this mutt at the pound.
"pound" にこんな意味もあるとは知りませんでした。

mall cut

やっと地元の図書館が再開し本が借りられるようになりました。最初に読む本は3月に
予約したReader's Digest 4月号です。　その4月号の特集 'Your True Stories in 100
Words' から "Splitting Hairs" と題された記事からの引用です。
I work with kids, and I'd recently gotten my hair cut. A little boy named Jaiden
asked,"Miss Joanne, did you get a hair cut?" Trying to be funny, I replied, "I got'em ALL cut." He looked at me quizzically and asked, "What's a mall
cut?"
小さな男の子が何故 "What's a mall cut?" と質問したのか、そしてこれが何故
オチなのか分かりません。　とりあえず辞書で "mall cut" を調べようとしました
が、どこにも見あたません。しかし、Googleで検索するとヒントとなりそうな記事が見つか
りました。まず、この意味かなと思った記事を引用します。
Mall Cut vs. Mom Cut
So a few months ago, I went to the Valley Fair Mall to buy a pair of jeans. I walked out of the Valley Fair Mall with a pair of jeans and a haircut. Risky, you may think, getting a
mall cut, particularly at the Valley Fair Mall, which is a little bit W. T., if you know what I mean.
"mall cut" で私もモールにある床屋、日本なら千円床屋（最近は厳密には千円ではありませんが）に相当か？、を連想したのですが、これではやはり意味が通じませんね。
(注: W. T.は恐らくwhite trashの略でしょう。A derrogatory term for very poor
white people. A racist epithet, not because it specifies race, per se, but because it
implies that unsophisticated, disadvantaged white people require special distinction as such to differentiate them from your average poor, huddled masses yearning to be free. (excerpt from Urban.dictionary)
更に検索するとぴったりと合う記事がありました。
I Got a Mall Cut
When I was really little, after my step dad would get his hair cut, my sister and I would
ask.... Did you get a hair cut?

To which he would reply... No, I got a mall cut.

I never understood this as a child... What the heck does that have to do with anything?
It wasn't until very many years later, I realized he was saying, No, I got 'em all cut! I mean, I was like 23.
英語の駄洒落も分かり難い時がありますが、発音にからむ話も難しいですね。

round and flashmob/flash mob

The Japan Times Online May 28の記事 'Hong Kong police clamp down on national anthem law protests' の中に気になる単語がありました。
Hong Kong police cast a dragnet around the financial hub’s legislature on Wednesday and fired pepper-pellet rounds in the commercial district as they stamped down on protests against a bill banning insults to China’s national anthem.
"pepper-pellet rounds" の "rounds" は弾の意味だと思いますが、辞書にこの用法の説明があるか調べると次の説明がありました。
・Collins Dictionary: A round of ammunition is the bullet or bullets released when a gun is fired.: ...firing 1650 rounds of ammunition during a period of ten minutes.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: a bullet or other single piece of ammunition: The soldiers had only 20 rounds left.
記事を更に読み続けるともっと興味深い単語が出てきました。
Small flashmob rallies in the districts of Causeway Bay, Mongkok and Central, the latter broken up by officers firing crowd-control rounds filled with a pepper-based irritant.
"flashmob" ですが、デモで集まった群衆をさしているはずですが、特別な意味があるようです。　辞書を見ると、"flash mob" と同じとあり、そちらの項の説明が下記の様に書かれていました。
・Oxford English Dictionary: A large public gathering at which people perform an unusual or seemingly random act and then disperse, typically organized by means of the Internet or social media.: ‘equipped with cameras and LED lights, a flash mob of 135 people appeared out of nowhere to put on a performance’
・Collins Dictionary: A flash mob is a group of people who arrange by phone or online to meet suddenly in a public place to do something for a short time.: A flash mob of hundreds of fans danced to his music outside the station.
これは覚えたい表現ですね。

tithe

The Japan Times Online May 14, 2020のオピニオン記事　"A tithe approach to volunteering in our post-pandemic world" -- The rewards of volunteering are enormous for one’s self and community.
タイトル中に使われている単語 "tithe" は見覚えがありますが、意味を忘れています。　新聞記事の場合は内容を読み進めると意味が分かる場合が多いので記事の本文を読みます。
予想通り、 "tithe" を説明する個所が出てきました。

How much time is appropriate?
This may vary by the week and individual, but I think a good measure is to think of volunteering as similar to tithing. In other words, as a tithe in the Judeo-Christian tradition, as well as the cultures of some other religions, is one-tenth of one’s income (crops, animals, wealth, etc.) given to the church or charity, perhaps one-tenth of one’s work (study) week (i.e., one-tenth of 40 hours) could be used for volunteering.
新聞はやはり英語の勉強にも役立ちますね。