Sorry, we're clothed!

仕事や商売にコロナの影響が大きくなる一方です。米国での状況の一端です。
Reader's　Digest 12月/1月合併号の "Life in These United States" の記事から引用します。

A strip club near where my daughter lived shut its doors for a while in response to COVID-19.
A billboard outside announced: "Sorry, we're clothed!"

座布団十枚!

cut the mustard

Yuval Noah Harariの "Homo Deus" を読んでいます。
Over the last century, as scientists opened up the Sapience black box, they discovered there neither soul, nor free will, nor 'self' -- but only genes, hormones and neurons that obey the same physical and chemical laws governing the rest of reality. Today when scholars ask why a man drew a knife and stabbed someone to death, answering 'Because he chose to' doesn't cut the mustard. Instead, geneticists and brain scientists provide a much more detailed answer: 'He did it due to such-and-such electrochemical processed in the brain that were shaped by a particular genetic make-up, which in turn reflect ancient evolutionary pressures coupled with chance mutations.'

"cut the mustard" は以前取り上げた時に意味を調べましたが、今回は語源を調べて見ました。
The Word Detective (http://www.word-detective.com/122099.html#cutmustard)に次の説明があるのを見つけました。
　
Dear Word Detective: Where the heck does the phrase "cut the mustard" come from? If you cut mustard with anything, you weaken its heat and flavor. So why, when you speak of something not succeeding, do you say it doesn't "cut the mustard"? It's just such a weird connection to me. Or is the "mustard" part really a corruption of "muster"? -- Anna Zimmerman, via the internet.

"Weird connection" doesn't even begin to cover it. The origin of "cut the mustard," meaning "to measure up to standards" or "to be sufficient or successful in accomplishing a task," is the subject of a long-standing debate among language experts. We do know that "cut the mustard" first appeared in print in an O. Henry story in 1907 and has been in pretty constant use since then, but exactly to what mustard "cut the mustard" might refer is still up in the air.
One theory is that "mustard" in the phrase should actually be, as you suggest, "muster," meaning "examination." To "muster" troops is to assemble them for inspection, those who meet the necessary standards then being said to have "passed muster." It is possible that "cut the mustard" is simply a mangled form of "cut the muster," with "cut" being used in the sense of "to manage" or "to surpass." One problem with this theory is the lack of any known use of the supposedly proper form "cut the muster" in print.
It is also possible that "cut the mustard" refers to "cutting" (adulterating) mustard to make it less pungent, but this origin, as you note, seems unlikely because the idea of weakening strong mustard is almost completely opposite to the popular "strong enough" sense of "cut the mustard." And, since mustard plants are not notably difficult to harvest, it's not likely that "cut the mustard" refers to any special degree of agricultural stamina.
Fortunately, there's a glimmer of sense in all this. Years before "cut the mustard" showed up to mystify us, "mustard" was being used as slang for "that which adds zest" or "the best of anything," obviously referring to real mustard. To "cut the mustard" would then logically mean "to match the best in any situation."
うーん、分かるような分からないような。とりあえず、今夜のおでんにたっぷりマスタードを付けて満足することにしよう。

pied piper

Yuval Noah Harariの "Homo Deus" を読んでいます。
Modernity has turned 'more stuff' into a panacea applicable to almost all public and private problems, form religious fundamentalism through Third World authoritarianism down to a failed marriage. If only countries such as Pakistan and Egypt could maintain a healthy growth rate, their citizens would come to enjoy the benefits of private cars and bulging refrigerators, and would take the path of earthly prosperity instead of following the fundamentalist pied piper. Similarly, economic growth in countries such as Congo and Myanmar would produce a prosperous middle class which is the bedrock of leberal democracy.

"pied piper" は見覚えのある表現です。 "piper" は笛吹ですね。辞書を引きます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: The hero of The Pied Piper of Hamelin, a poem by Robert Browning (1842), based on an old German legend. The piper, dressed in particolored costume, rid the town of Hamelin (Hameln) in Brunswick of rats by enticing them away with his music, and when refused the promised payment he lured away the town's children in the same manner.

・Collins Dictionary: a person who entices others to follow him

ハーメルンの笛吹男ですね。実はもう50年程昔になりますが、このドイツのハーメルンに行ったことがあります。その頃ドイツ中を列車で旅をしました。どこに行った時のことか覚えていませんが、童話で有名なハーメルンを途中下車して町を散策したことだけを覚えています。東京以外は知らない私だったので、ハーメルンが小さな田舎町だった記憶しかありません。

conflate

Yuval Noah Harariの "Homo Deus" を読んでいます。

When religous advertise themselves, they tend to emphasise their beautiful values. But God often hides in the fine print of factual statements. The Catholic religion markets it self as the religion of universal love and compassion. How wonderful! Who can object to that? Why, then, are not all humans Catholic? Because when you read the fine print, you discover that Catholicism also demands blind obedience to a pope 'who never makes mistakes' even when he orders his followers to go on crusades and burn heretics at the stake. Such practical instructions are not deduced solely from ethical judgements. Rather, they result from conflating ethical judgements with factual statements.

前回 "unalloyed" を取り上げましたが、"conflating" は "alloy" と同様にミックスすることですね。知らない単語だったので英英辞書で確認します。


・Oxford English Dictionary: Combine (two or more texts, ideas, etc.) into one.: ‘the urban crisis conflates a number of different economic and social issues’

・Collins Dictionary: if you conflate two or more descriptions or ideas, or if they conflate, you combine them in order to produce a single one.: Unfortunately the public conflated fiction with reality and made her into a saint.

・Cambridge English Dictionary: to combine two or more separate things, especially pieces of text, to form a whole: She conflated the three plays to produce a fresh new work.

unalloyed

Yuval Noah Harariの "Homo Deus" を読んでいます。
In theory, if some holy book misrepresented reality, its disciples would sooner or later discover this, and the text's authority would be undermined. Abraham Linchon said you cannot deceive everybody all the time. Well, that's wishful thinking. In practice, the power of human cooperation networks depends on a delicated balance between truth and fiction. If you distort reality too much, it will weaken you, and you will not be able to compete aginst more clear-sighted rivals. On the other hand, you cannot organise masses of people effectively without relying on some fictional myths. So if you stick to unalloyed reality, without mixing any fiction with it, few people will follow you.

Harari氏のこの指摘は目から鱗です。宗教や政治家の主張に問題や疑問なところがあるのに多くの信奉者がいるのに不思議に感じることが多かったのですが、"you cannot organise masses of people effectively without relying on some fictional myths" このテクニックで昔から為政者は大衆を手なずけて来たのですね。戦前「天皇万歳」と言って多くの若者が死んでいったにも関わらず、戦後の日本国憲法第1章（第1条から第8条まで）で相変わらず天皇を崇めていると私には読める条文がある理由がすっきりと分かった気がします。
さて、英語の話題に戻します。　"alloy" は合金の意味を持っているのは知っていますが、上の例文の様に "unalloyed" でミックスされていない、あるいは純粋なの意味に使えるのですね。一応辞書で確認します。

・Oxford English Dictionary: (chiefly of emotions) complete and unreserved.: ‘unalloyed delight’

・Collins Dictionary: not mixed or intermingled with any other thing; pure: unalloyed metal; unalloyed pleasure

・Cambridge English Dictionary: (especially of a positive feeling) not spoiled by any amount of negative feeling; pure: We had the perfect holiday - two weeks of unalloyed bliss.

vagaries

Yuval Noah Harariの "Homo Deus" を読んでいます。
Some believe that if we could only crack the generic code and map every neuron in the brain, we will know all of humanity's secrets. After all, if humans have no soul, and if thoughs, emotions and sensations are just biochemical algorithms, why can't biology account for all the vagaries of human societies? From this perspective, the crusades were territorial disputes shaped by evolutioary pressures, and English knights going to fight Saladin in the Holy Land were not that different from wolves trying to appropriate the territory of a neighbouring pack.

"vagaries" は見覚えがある単語ですが、意味が浮かんできません。辞書を引く前に記録を調べたら、3/3/2011と4/24/2012にこのブログで取り上げていました。
やはり "the vagaries of the weather" あるいは "the vagaries of the stock market" のフレーズでしっかりと覚えないと駄目ですね。

congeries

Yuval Noah Harariの "Homo Deus" を読んでいます。
To be frank, science knows surprisingly little about mind and consciousness. Current orthodoxy holds that consciousness if created by electrochemical reactions in the brain, and that mental experiences fulfil some essential data-processing function. However, nobody has any idea how a congeries of biochemical reactions and electrical currents in the brain creates the subjective experience of pain, anger or love.

精神、心、魂、感情、意識、これらは別物か、それとも全て脳内の働きによるものか、問われると、分からなくなりますね。さて、文中の "congeries" の意味を調べます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: A disorderly collection; a jumble.: whiffs of ground coffee and a congeries of smells

・Collins Dictionary: (functioning as singular or plural) a collection of objects or ideas; mass; heap: From the airplane the town resembled a congeries of tiny boxes

・American Heritage Dictionary: A collection; an aggregation: "Our city, it should be explained, is two cities, or more—an urban mass or congeries divided by the river"

sentient being

Yuval Noah Harariの "Homo Deus" を読んでいます。
Other religions, particularly Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism, have demonstrated even greater empathy to animals. They emphasise the connection between humans and the rest of the ecosystem, and their foremost ethical commandment has been to avoid killing and living being. Whereas the biblical 'Thou shalt not kill' covered only humans, the ancient Indian principle of ahimsa (non-violence) extends to every sentient being.

"sentient" は "sense" の親戚のようですが、"sentient being" を感覚を備えた生物とすると虫や微生物でも何らかのセンサーを持っているので、ここでは多分合いませんね。
"sentient" を辞書でみます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Able to perceive or feel things.: she had been instructed from birth in the equality of all sentient life forms

・Collins Dictionary: A sentient being is capable of experiencing things through its senses.: sentient creatures human and nonhuman alike

・Cambridge English Dictionary: able to experience feelings: It is hard for a sentient person to understand how any parents could treat their child so badly.
日本語の感情に近い意味でしょうか？
Wikipediaには次の説明があります。（抜粋）
In modern Western philosophy, sentience is the ability to experience sensations (known in philosophy of mind as "qualia"). In Eastern philosophy, sentience is a metaphysical quality of all things that require respect and care.
...
Sponges, placozoans, and mesozoans, with simple body plans and no nervous system, are the only members of the animal kingdom that possess no sentience.
...
In 1997 the concept of animal sentience was written into the basic law of the European Union. The legally binding protocol annexed to the Treaty of Amsterdam recognises that animals are "sentient beings", and requires the EU and its member states to "pay full regard to the welfare requirements of animals".
The laws of several states include certain invertebrates such as cephalopods (octopuses, squids) and decapod crustaceans (lobsters, crabs) in the scope of animal protection laws, implying that these animals are also judged capable of experiencing pain and suffering.

Anthropocene

Yuval Noah Harariの "Homo Deus" を読んでいます。　"The Anthropocene" と題された章からの抜粋です。

Even if we leave aside these future prospects and only look back on the last 70,000 years, it is evident that the Anthropocene has altered the world in unprecedented ways.
Asteroids, plate tectonics and climate change may have impacted organism all over the globe, but their influence differed from one area to another.
...
In contrast, Sapience broke the barriers that had separated the globe into independant ecological zones.

"Anthropocene" の "Anthropo" は人を意味することは知っていますが、"Anthropocene" ではどんな意味になるのでしょうか？

・Dictionary.com: noting or pertaining to a proposed epoch of the Quarternary Period, occurring in the present time, since mid-20th century, when human activity began to effect significant environmental consequences, specifically on ecosystems and climate.: No discussion about the Anthropocene is complete without examining the role of fossil fuels in changes to our climate and ecosystems.

・Wiktionary: The proposed current geological epoch, in which human activities have a powerful effect on the global environment. The profound impact that the activities of human beings are having on the environment have led to the word Anthropocene being used to describe the current age.

・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: the period of time during which human activities have had an environmental impact on the Earth regarded as constituting a distinct geological age: Most scientists agree that humans have had a hand in warming Earth's climate since the industrial revolution—some even argue that we are living in a new geological epoch, dubbed the Anthropocene.

なるほど、人類の活動が地球環境に影響を及ばすことになった時代を意味しているのですね。

street urchin

宗教に関しては余り関心がなく、この事自体は多くの日本人と同じだと思いますが、かなり前から、神が人間を創ったのではなく、人間が神を創った事を確信するようになりましたが、この事を明確に主張する人や書物は知りません。イスラエル人のYuval Noah Harariは人間が神を創った事を明確に表していて、人類の文明はこの事から始まったと説明しています。そのYuval Noah Harari氏の "Homo Deus" を読んでいます。
Marx forgot that capitalists know how to read. At first only a handful of disciples took Marx seriously and read his writings. But as these socialist firebrands gained adherents and power, the capitalists became alarmed. They too perused Das Kapital, adopting many of the tools and insights of Marxist analysis. In the twentieth century everybody from street urchins to presidents embraced a Marxist approach to economics and history.

"urchins" と来たら美味しいウニを直ぐに連想しますが、道にはいないですよね。辞書でウニ以外の意味を調べます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: A mischievous young child, especially one who is poorly or raggedly dressed.: he was surrounded by a dozen street urchins in rags

・Collins Dictionary: a young child who is dirty and poorly dressed.: We were in the bazaar with all the little urchins watching us.

・Cambridge English Dictionary: a small child, especially one who behaves badly and is dirty or untidily dressed: a street urchin
最近の日本では "street urchins" は見かけませんね。絶滅危惧種です。