英语成语: 挂猪头，卖猫肉–Pig in a poke
今天早上读Glenn GreenWald的博客，读到“They (the Chinese) don’t want to buy a pig in a poke”，虽然从行文里猜得出意思，但我还是用鼠标左键选择，然后右键股沟搜索，来查查这个成语的出处。我到现在还搞不明白为什么IE里没有这个功能，该功能已是我学习的利器之一。
原来欧洲中世纪后期流行的商家坑人手段是挂猪头，卖猫肉：把猫肉放在袋子里当猪肉卖，因猪肉稀罕但猫多。所以“pig in a poke”是忽悠人的意思。这和我们的”挂羊头，卖狗肉”有异曲同工之妙。
引申开来，”Let the cat out of the bag”就是揭秘，还真相于天下的意思。我明白它的意思，并且也用过这个俚语，但今天是第一次搞明白出处，挺有意思的。
感谢宋以郎的链接，让我了解到Glenn Greenwald的博客。个人以为Glenn Greenwald的文笔犀利，逻辑清晰，其揭露媒体之无良、政府之腐败、权威智库之装逼的深刻，令我击掌叫绝。
Chuck Said,
September 26, 2009 @
Hi Haidong,
I used google to translate this and it probably didn’t do the greatest job in the world but I did learn a new idiom (I had no idea what that phrase meant). Thanks for turning me on to Glenn Greenwald. I have added him to my google reader. I always value coming across honest, thoughtful commentators who aren’t simply shoveling spin or propaganda.
Chuck
Haidong Ji Said,
September 26, 2009 @
Thanks Chuck.
Google Translate certainly has its uses, but probably not in this case. Google, pronounced in English, sounds very similar to a Chinese word “butt crack”, and that’s what I used in this post. So I doubt Google will translate itself back into English as that word. By the way, Google’s official Chinese name, translated back into English, is something like “song from a valley”.