Wimp out, death warmed over, etc.
"ARE YOU busy?"
"What are you doing here? I thought you were helping Nadkarni clean up his garage today. Did you wimp out?"
"Did I what?"
"Wimp out. When you wimp out of doing something, you get out of it. You leave it for others to do it."
"In other words you chicken out, is that what you are saying?"
"I guess you could say that. Rajeev is a totally unreliable person. When the work builds up, he invariably wimps out."
"How about this example? You promised that you would help us get the job done by Friday. You can't wimp out on us now."
"I am not the sort of person who would wimp out when there is..."
"...I am not so sure about that."
"You are not sure about anything. Anyway, why aren't you helping Nadkarni?"
"I am not feeling too good. I called up Mr. Nadkarni and informed him that I wouldn't be coming."
"Not feeling good, eh? Explains why you look like death warmed over, I guess."
"I look like what?"
"When you tell someone that he looks like death warmed over, what you mean is that he looks terrible."
"Is it another way of saying that the person is ugly?"
"No, no! It just means that the individual looks very tired or ill. It doesn't mean he is ugly."
"I see. Can I say, when I saw Deepa in the hospital last week she looked like death warmed over?"
"I suppose you could. You could also say that she looked like death warmed up. The British say `warmed up', while the Americans say, `warmed over'. It is also possible to say `to feel like death warmed over'."
"After going on a twenty mile trek, I felt like death warmed up."
"That's bound to happen. When Anuradha came to office this morning, she looked like death warmed over. So my boss told her to take the next couple of days off."
"That was nice of him."
"Don't know if it was nice of him. I think he gave her a couple of days off because he wanted to protect himself."
"Protect himself from what?"
"From Anuradha! You see, she has a terrible temper. Even when she is in a good mood she tends to make the fur fly. So you can...."
".... what does that mean?"
"When you say that someone makes the fur fly, what you mean is that the person causes many fights or arguments. For example, I can say, my neighbours hate each other. Whenever they run into each other, they make the fur fly."
"How about this example? When I was a kid, I spilled ink all over my father's office papers. When he saw that, he made the fur fly."
"It is also possible to say, `to make the feathers fly'. For example, when some of my friends get together, they really make the feathers fly."
"So what do you do when the fur flies?"
"Me? I just make sure that I don't get caught in the crossfire."
"In the crossfire? What does it mean?"
"It means the same thing as `get caught in the middle'. When two people are arguing and you get caught in the middle, what kind of a situation are you in?"
"A pretty difficult one, I suppose. Probably makes it very difficult for you to remain neutral."
"Excellent. My uncle and aunt were having an argument and unfortunately my sister got caught in the crossfire."
"When my sister and her friend have an argument, they try to draw me into it. But I always make sure that I don't get caught in the middle."
"Whenever I sense that people are going to have an argument, I try to get out of the room. I just hate getting caught in the crossfire."
"I sense that you want me leave. I'll see you later."
"Take care."
***** ***** *****
The 50-50-90 rule: Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there's a 90% probability you'll get it wrong. —
Andy Rooney
S. Upendran
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