too many chiefs and not enough Indians – too many bosses, and not enough people to do the work [thefreedict]

“In the old days,” someone said, “The HR recuritment policy in my company was flexible. I once hired a guy who didn’t even have a degree, but he was really good at programming. And he never complained doing the chore. Now, the company enforces a strict recruitment policy to ensure only recruiting very good people. But, the problem is that we end up with too many chiefs and not enough Indians.”

can’t have one’s cake and eat it – can’t have things both ways [thefreedict]

I discovered some useful shortcuts in Visual Studio and told a colleague. Unfortunately, the shortcuts didn’t work for him because they conflicted with the emacs program that he was using. “That’s pity,” he said, “But you can’t have butter and the money of the butter”.  He is French so he was literally translating a French idiom. The English eqivalent is: You can’t have your cake and eat it.

There is also a similar saying in Chinese: you can’t have the fish and the bear palm paw at the same time (see here and here).

namby-pamby – lacking in character, directness, or moral or emotional strength [dict]

Someone brought in some computer hardware that he used nearly 30 years ago. The hardware looks very bulky, by today’s standard. The memory controller is heavy enough to knock a person out. “It is real hardware,” he says, ” Very solid-built, not like the the namby-pamby stuff you guys are using today.”

that ship has sailed – A particular opportunity has passed you by [UsingEnglish]

On the ‘two and a half men’, Alan is splitting up with Kandi. It seems Kandi has a better lawyer and will get everything, but Alan still fights to get at least the dog. Charlie, his brother, tries to enlighten him: “Just give her everything. When all of this is settled down, you get one thing that you value most and that you cannot put a price on…” “Dignity?” Alan asks. “Oh, stop it,” Charlies continues, “That ship has sailed… The thing you get is freedom!”

break wind – to expel intestinal gas (an euphemism for fart) [dict]

This is hilarious. A football player was given a yellow card for breaking wind while another player was taking the penalty (see BBC news). The referee explained that was “an ungentlemanly conduct”.