Seesul´s lingual corner

[evangilder]

PX, or Post eXchange is where a member of the military can purchase about anything they need, from tooth paste to cameras and stereo gear. It is also known as Base eXchange, or BX for the Air Force.

[seesul]

many thx fellas!

[ppopsie]

Can I join Roman? I still love the sweet Blanik!

[seesul]

if you help me with my Czenglish...
sure, welcome!

Anyway, I´m not an expert on Blanik, but was it L-13? If so, a friend of mine, 85 years old now, has installed an engine on it some years ago...

[ppopsie]

This was in 1979, I think. The L-13 was one of the high performance gliders of the time, having a very finely finished metal airframe with flush rivets all over. It was also my start of DIY English learning, with reading its maintenance manual and the parts manual as well as the flight handbook all in English.

[seesul]

Are you from Japan or do you just live there?

[ppopsie]

Am Japanese, was born in Tokyo.

My "scratchbuilding" of English has been just for my hobby; flying, modeling and cooking. But it is also useful for many other things and that is not bad.

[seesul]

O.K., thank you!

[seesul]

And then August 22nd came my first mission. I was flying tail-gunner aboard the “Tail End Charlie” on a mission to Odertal Oil Refinery in Germany. The pilot was Charles Beecham, and I didn’t get to know most of the other guy’s names... I had a real case of the butterflies.

What does the last sentence mean?

[evangilder]

Nervous. It comes from a saying that one has butterflies in the stomach. It's a reference to how your stomach feels when you get nervous or apprehensive. Also scared.

[seesul]

Many thanks Eric!

[seesul]

This Iowa countryside is some beautiful land for farming. The land is real black and these farmers have a corn patch for every cotton patch that we have back home. They have the nicest homes and more big barns and outhouses than Carter has liver pills.

Which Carter does the author mean?

[evangilder]

In the late 1800s, up until about the 1960s, there was a drug (medicine) called "Carters Little Liver Pills". It was used to treat headaches and general pains, like aspirin. Because it was so heavily advertised and well known, it was assumed that they had a lot of them.

So that phrase was meant as a way of comparing the number of items with Carters Liver Pills, meaning there were a lot of what they compare it with. It is a more creative way of saying that there were a lot of barns and outhouses in Iowa.

[FalkeEins]

Just wanted to ask if pepper-upper is common slang expression.
I know the author so I´ll ask him by e-mail.
thx again

..the verb is 'to pep up' - ..there is no noun so we make one up, ie 'pepper-upper', ie something that peps you up... its not a word I've ever used

[seesul]

In the late 1800s, up until about the 1960s, there was a drug (medicine) called "Carters Little Liver Pills". It was used to treat headaches and general pains, like aspirin. Because it was so heavily advertised and well known, it was assumed that they had a lot of them.

So that phrase was meant as a way of comparing the number of items with Carters Liver Pills, meaning there were a lot of what they compare it with. It is a more creative way of saying that there were a lot of barns and outhouses in Iowa.

Many thanks Eric for your perfect explanation! I just finished the translation of the article and am going to send it to the publisher...
Thx again for the help of all of you.

I just decided to make a Cambridge First Certificate in English. It´s a 2 years long course that is finished by the examination. The examination is accepted in whole European Union. I think it would be a shame not to use this chance because I love English but never learned it at school.
So it´s gonna be hard course but I just feel I need it...
Cambridge ESOL: First Certificate in English (FCE)