sharp practice — Crafty or deceitful dealings, especially in business [dict]

The ongoing discussion in the UKCrypto forum is on the pre-approved credit cards. It has become increasingly common in the UK that a bank sends you a brand new credit card with a credit limit of 1000 pounds, even without your requesting that. To some customers, this is perhaps welcomed for the convenience; but to the majority, it is a nuisance. The cunning bank deals with the later case by suggesting to “cut it up” if the card is not needed. The threat of cloning a “Chip N Pin” card at a low cost has been mentioned in the previous blog post. Hence, you have the sole responsibility to dispose of the card properly. Otherwise, you bear the liability to explain to the bank why you refuse to pay the bill charged to that card.

Feeling paranoid, you cut the chip into halves, then into further halves, … and finally put pieces to the barbecue fire. Before you feel safe that you’ve eliminated any chance of recycling the chip by a criminal, there arrive newly offered credit cards from other banks, retailers, super-markets … Someone in the forum describes this issuing pre-approved cards as the “sharp practice” by banks. There are no regulations on it yet.

an eye for an eye; (a tooth for a tooth) — Punishment in which an offender suffers what the victim has suffered [dict] [wiki]

An Indian guy borrowed a DVD of “Gandhi”, and invited all people in the house to watch it. It is a classic film. I watched it once about 10 years ago. At that time, my English listening was poor. I still remember our English teacher “chased” us into a dark video room to watch a film we couldn’t understand. The residual memory about the film is that it was super-long and basically we sat there for four hours, flicking each other to keep awake.

But this time was different. With improved English listening, I really enjoyed this film, so did all the others. On the film, Gandhi explained why the choice of “non-violence”: “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” It is hard not to be reminded of the current chaotic situation in the middle east. Israel was provoked after its two soldiers were kidnapped, and quickly retaliated. However, Israel is quickly loosing the world’s sympathy for the rising reports of civilian casualties and refugees in Lebanon (Today’s news reports that four UN observers were killed in a bomb attack, including a Chinese). Who’s right and who’s no? No one can tell. The world is blind now, just as Gandhi had predicted 60 years ago.

dig in — To begin to eat heartily [dict]

On ‘Lucky Louie’, Louie’s wife, Tim, forces her husband to diet since he is overweight. One day, Louie goes to visit his buddy. The buddy’s wife serves him with the Pepperoni Pizza and a milkshake, and says: “Come on. Dig in.”

It ain’t (isn’t) over till the fat lady sings — until something has officially finished, the result is uncertain [UsingEnglish]

This is a rather amusing phrase I learned from this article (in Chinese). In the early days of the opera play, the performance was often ended by a fat lady, singing in a high-pitched tone (you could catch a glimpse of a really fat lady in the article). The word “ain’t” seemed alien to me. Then someone explained to me that it is exactly the same as “isn’t”. On the other hand, I come to like this “ain’t”; it is not only original, but also colloquial.

do not feed the trolls — to give no attention to the person who posted inflammatory messages [thefreedict]

Responding to the rude posts left on the security-research blog, someone gave a piece of advice: “Do not feed the trolls“. This phrase originates from “Do not feed the animals”. The meaning is intuitive: feeding the animals in a zoo will spur them to ask for more. People who attempt to make a scene in a forum simply ask for attention. Giving them no attention is often the best solution.

get one’s goat — to make one angry or annoyed [dict]

Our research group maintains a blog: “Light Blue Touch Paper”. The blog is meant for open discussions in security research. Recently, an anonymous reader abused the platform through dumping a derogatory post in the comment section. This really pissed off a guy in our group. He said: “That post gets my goat.”

cut (and) loose — To speak or act without restraint [dict]

On ‘Monk’, the murderer was eager to get into Sharona’s house and delete the phone messages. After pouring a lot of wine over Sharona at a bar, he said to her: “What do you say we cut and loose and do something crazy …“

out on a limb — In a difficult, awkward, or vulnerable position [dict]

On ‘Friends’, Chandler felt that Joey didn’t like his girlfriend, Janice. So he asked Joey: “You know, I may be way out on a limb here, but do you have a problem with Janice?” It’s a useful phrase if you are about to say something embarrassing.

loose lips sink ships — (during World War 2) Unguarded talk may give useful information to the enemy [phrase.org]

In a movie, a girl told her boyfriend a gossip and asked him to keep it secret. Then, the boyfriend passed on this gossip to his basketball buddy and asked him to keep secret, and so did the buddy to other teammates. In the end, everyone got to know the secret. The girl was mad at her boyfriend and said: “Loose lips sink ships.”

up one’s alley — Compatible with one’s interests or qualifications [dict]

In a magazine article, a guy described his brief experience of parenting two neighborhood kids, who ran away from their real parents’ incessant quarrelling and fighting. At start he felt reluctant to accommodate them as “dealing with kids was not up his alley“.

bad things happen in threes — why three? No one knows. That is just the way how things work [wiki]

In a movie, a guy complained about his bad luck — he lost his job, found his girlfriend cheating on him and got mugged on the street. “Had Bad things happen in threes,” he grumbled.

whatever floats your boat – whatever you like [freedict]

Someone taught me this phrase. “It’s quite informal,” he explained, “Better not say it to your boss.”

throw (someone) a curve ball — to deceive someone [dict]

On ‘Monk’, the murderer, who killed the lawyer and his secretary, left the crime scene with a smashed window on the door. The police chief pinned on a lawyer’s former client as the prime suspect. However, the observant Monk noticed that the suspect owned a security company. “He is able to pick any lock,” Monk analyzed, “Why smash the window?” The police chief didn’t like to be challenged. He explained impatiently: “Maybe he knows we know he can pick locks. So he threw us a curve ball.”