Today is the first game of this year’s Major League Baseball World Series. The best two baseball teams of 2017 play to determine the champion (winner) this year. My favorite team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, is in the series for the first time in 29 years.
It should be a national holiday.
There are 30 teams in Major League Baseball. They are divided (split; separated) into the American League and the National League, each with 15 teams. The winners of those two leagues play each other in the World Series.
The World Series has the word “world” in it although only teams in the U.S. and Canada are in the Leagues. In fact, there is now only one team from Canada — the Toronto Blue Jays. So that’s a little American hyperbole for you.
Hyperbole refers to exaggerated claims, such as when you say that something is much more or much bigger than it really is. Of course, you should not believe it is literally (actually) true. It isn’t.
For example, I might say, “L.A. traffic is so bad that it takes me years to get home from work.” or “My bald head is so shiny (reflects light so well), it could be used to beam (shine light) messages into space.”
The World Series consists of (has) a maximum of seven games. The team that wins four out of seven games wins the series. We often use the phrase “best out of (number)” — the person or team who/that wins the most out of a number of competitions is the champion. The World Series is a best out of seven competition.
The Dodgers play the Houston (Texas) Astros today here in Los Angeles.
As you can see, I’m ready to root for (support and encourage) my team. Go, Dodgers!
~ Jeff
Hi,
We will enjoy together with you if the Los Angeles Dodgers team win.
Good luck!
All the best for you,
Tania
Hi,
I like the hyperbole in special in poems.
We say “hiperbola”.
Hi chief
Where is ur baseball cap with the logo of ur favorit team on it ,man?
Well
Let’s just say
For some unapparent reson u opted out of wearing it.
Well , you are the boss
I m positive , you have your reasons.
On a less series note , navy blue is definitely your color Jeff.
The jacket you are wearing in the pic up there is totally you.
The color of the jacket is complimenting your face.
It brings out ur face and makes u look younger.
All in all ,u r working it ,big time !!
In other words , you are owning it.
About the world champion
I couldn’t be more agree with you on that.
I think it is an asvertising tectique.
I mean , it is not limited just to sporting activities. Advertisement companies always exaggerate for effect!!
Jeff
My good man ,
I understand the enthusiast but I don’t understand the appeal.
I went to baseball stadium -both in Canada and in the US -to watch a major match.
man , it was Brutal. It was a challenge not dozing off.
To me , it is the slowest sport Ever !!
I am taking snale slow 🙂
I wanna pull-out-my-hair slow.:)
The only fun part of the whole experience -for me at least -was when we started a Mexican wave which never caught on or when we would sing:
“Take me out to a ball game
Take me out with the crowd ;buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack
I don’t care if I don’t get back home
Let me root , root for home team
If they don’t win is a shame “ and so on
Well
All we ate though was hotdogs !!!
Lots of ,lots of hotdogs and slurpees
My favourite flavour is strawberry
Any hoo
It is good to catch a baseball game in the stadium but not more than once or twice
Boy
It really tries one ‘s patience
I enjoyed the tailgate party both times, though
U know , before the start of the game.
Jeff
I like u
So
I ‘ll cheer for dodger too
Dodger rules !
🙂
Pete
How scary do you look these days?
Well,
Not scary enough !!
Halloween is coming up ,folks
We need to get into the spirit !!
I craved out a bad ass jack -o-lantern last night
Trust me I put a lot of time to the carving of the bad boy.
It even scared me a bit:)
I plan to put it out front by the entrance door of the building.
Well
It is my first in the serious of pumpkins I plan to carve for the Halloween eve.
A big personal project of mine with the dead line : hollowing eve.
Well
It is musing and amusing
Yup
You heard me
Halloween is my muse
It inspires me to do gaudy decorations around the place and intrigues my fine craftsmanship skills 🙂
The demographic of the commercial building I reside in is mostly young couples with young kids.
Well , I typically avoid the trick and treat part of Halloween.
As I did last year
But
Boy ,aren’t the kids persistent ?
They literally knocked my door down last year.
It was a rotten thing to do , I know
I mean , pretending not to be home.
I had a change of mind, though.
Mind you ,ignoring kids was an evil thing to do.
Well
This year around , I am way a head of Halloween eve:)
I bought a big supply of candies way a head of time. Well , between you and me , there was a big sale on Halloween supplies and I simply took advantage of the situation.
Any hoo
Oh ,I set up a paper ghost -in my place-on the corner by the door. I strung it up with fake lights and stuff
So when I open the door to hand out candies the first thing kids see is the paper ghost 🙂
I m dressing as a zombie. I am wearing my Halloween custom to work tomorrow.
We are allowed to do it on the Friday leading to Halloween eve.
Most my colleagues do it.
It is fun !!
We make fun of one another
We Make nasty comments about the customs and the makeovers
This year around my friends and I all go to visit the new haunted attractions set up in core downtown
Speaking of which ,there is this castle situated in down town Toronto
Last year the city Halloween planner went out of their way to make the castle one of the kind Halloween attraction.
I didn’t go
The cover charge was to pricy for my blood.
But ,I heard a lot of rave about it.
For one thing ,it attracted the press /multi media converged and everything
The name of the castle which is -in and of itself -a gothic castle is
Casa loma castle
Well
In actuality, Casa Loma is a tourist attraction it is a land mark in mid downtown and a museum of sort, i think.
I m telling you folks , The general construction of the castle , the lay out , numerous rooms, dark corners and recessions make it ideal for an eery ,bad ass Halloween haunted house.
I think , the city has been spoiling rather milking the situation. 🙂
The castle in Halloween is very popular with the kids
And well , it is a known fact that parents can not say “ no” to their kids 🙂
Smart !!! huh !?
Well
There is a tour on the city which is for free.
People gather in front of the old city hall where they are greeted by the event coordinator.
The coordinator then separate people into small groups of 10/11 people then ,allocate each group with one tour leader.
People follow the tour guide from one Halloween attraction to another as the tour guid explain the places relevance to Halloween. In Most of them -they claim – ghost were observed.
In one deserted hospital located in an dark ,damp ,icky back ally -they claim , they have been food traffic of ghosts :)))) so high that they were forced to shot down the hospital 🙂
The hospital was fully operative till late 70s I think .
Well
The hard part is the even is an outdoor tour
Well
It is Toronto we talking about
and Halloween is in the end of October.
U do the math !
U must brave the elements
Last year , I got forest bite folks
🙂
Pete
Hey it is me again.
Dear chief Jeff ,
I have always been meaning to ask you.
And ,now it is as good a moment as any
All facts point out that U r a baseball enthusiast
As u mentioned it several times over the past decade or so
Which Bering up this very question :
Have u ever caught a foul ball in a Base ball game ? U know when a batter knocked it out the park and into The spectacular.
U know When they hit a home-run.
Maybe u prefer watching those games at the comfort of ur place.
🙂
Pete
My dear cyber friend Emiliano
One quick question for you
What is the back story here?
I hear Spain stripping Catalan off its autonomy.
Why Spain doesn’t recognize Catalan autonomy ?
Yours
Happy Halloween folks
The other day I had this upbeat ,fun dialogs with a lady who happened to be an English speakers.
At some point in the conversation she mentioned the term “ Oasis hypnosis “
For the life of me , I don’t know what the term means.
I looked it up
No luck
I m wondering anyone out there know what it means
The talk was about wars in 40s -60s
Oasis hypnosis
Thank you in advance
🙂
Pete
PS
Well
It would be best if our dear profs care an input
Hello to my dear teachers Jeff, Lucy, Warren, and my dear classmates Emiliano, Dan, Peter, Tania and everyone who are part of this ESLPOD world!
My apologies to Emiliano and Peter for not replying earlier. Your messages stuck in my head, and I wanted to write immediately but my head and hands had been over worked and so it was a thought, a thought, and a thought ……….
OK, Halloween is here again soon, I remember listening to Jeff’s early day podcast about how he ate the sweets (candy) to his heart’s content after collecting them from his neighbours on Halloween night 🙂
I really miss the old format ESLPOD.Com which enable us to read the dialogues free. The old days are gone, I saved many dialogues and learning guides before, but when my computer or laptop died, I lost them 🙁
Anyway, I searched and found my favourite dialogue in this very website!!!
So, if you can remember even just a small part of the dialogue, Jeff and Lucy will open the door for you to read the whole dialogue again, free!!!
Part of the dialogue for you to read here if you’re interested:
“As a kid, I always liked Halloween. I liked dressing up in a costume that I pick out at the store or, more often, we made out of odds and ends at home. The best part was going trick-or-treating. Some years, I went with my brothers and sisters. When I got a little older, I went with my friends. We would go to the houses in our neighborhood and knock or ring the doorbell. When the door opened, we would yell, “Trick or treat!‚” We never played tricks and always got treats. The neighbor would put some candy and chocolate bars in our bags. We would go home at the end of the night and eat them to our hearts’ content.”
I’m very happy that I found my favourite dialogue/story in this website again, I’m always happy when I rediscovered something I lost involuntarily.
By the way, I have a grammar question that nobody likes:
In the dialogue above,
“I liked dressing up in a costume that I pick out at the store or, more often, we made out of odds and ends at home.”
Why do we use “pick” (simple present tense), and then “made” (simple past tense)?
Please simply ignore me if it’s a meaningless question, but thanks for answering if you know the answer.
I wish you all a HAPPY HALLOWEEN if you’re celebrating it. Sorry I’m not a Halloween fan, the only good thing I like about Halloween is to read Jeff’s Halloween dialogues/stories.
Best Wishes to you all!
lili:)
The Dodgers and Astros are making a real nail-biter. Today the Dodgers finally made the series tied. I expect tomorrow’ game to be even more exciting with two of
league’s best pitchers.
Hey
Lili
How have been
It has been a long time
Tell me about it.
I mean , I feel u
With regard to ur question
Funny u should ask,
It has been my very question too
I myself ask Eslpod on several occasions
Anyhoo
If u don’t mind
I wanna take a crack at the question
Here goes nothing :
U know , I might be totally in the wrong here.
To my best of knowledge , as near as I can figure , I think , the first part is done in simple present tense as the narrator in which case our one and only Jeff narrating a story of the past. If my money serves me right , the story is a flask back to his childhood.
Any Hoo
The first part is narrating a story so it is in present tense.
However ,the second part is the habit the narrator used to have as a child.
It is not a part of the main body of story but added to make the story more relatable ,more vivid.
It is the habit of the past that doesn’t exist anymore.
Well
I don’t know
Let’s ask Jeff
Did u grow out of it chief or not yet ?:))
Because it is a thing of past and finished and done on the past the narrator uses past tense.
Besides , the past tense denoting a nostalgic feeling that makes the whole story warmer.
See
I think , jeff comes to the story at all these different angles so we can relate better to the story
All the examples planted in the main body of stories usually make them more vivid
Well
Here was my two cents, lili
But ,don’t go by me
I might be totally off here
🙂
Pete
Thank you Peter 🙂
You are a very good English teacher! You have logically explained my grammar question, and I feel my English has improved after reading your answer 🙂
English grammar can be very tricky for English learners, but we can learn this language quicker if we pay attention to how native English speakers express themselves.
One thing I learned in recent years was, when you describe something in a picture (photo), although the story in the picture happened in the past, you have to use present tense to tell the story, I didn’t know this even though I had been learning English for over half a century!!!
Anyway, thanks again Peter, you’re a very good English teacher.
Also I must thank Jeff, Lucy and everyone who contributed to make this website available for us to learn English.
Best Wishes
lili:)
Hi,
Happy Halloween!
Trick or Treat!
Hi,
Years ago many young people celebrated Halloween night
in bars with special costumes or at the Dracula castle.
Now…less.
At the kindergarten… yes, it’s a good occasion to wear a
odd suit for fun.
Hi,
Thank you, Peter, for telling us about the Casa Loma castle
from Toronto, the Halloween attraction.
I like to know the habits from another countries.
We have something similar , the Dracula castle with vampires,
vampire menu, even coffins, a night in a coffin… special costumes.
Happy Halloween!
Tania
Hi,
About Catalonia autonomy… it’s a failure.
They do not recognize the Spain flag nor the EU flag.
How to live in Europe without the benefits of the EU?
Hey lili
I don’t know about that 🙂
You r too kind my friend
Happy u find my input helpful
🙂
Pete
Watch for the Menacing spirits
Once more, in the onset of winter, the Menacing spirits of the dead ,poltergeists, and fear mongers -are rising to mess with the world of living ,wreak havoc , and prey on our fears.
But Fear u must not
As the sugary treat is the only currency tonight 🙂
So
When kids come knocking,Be candy-ready
In exchange for immunity :)))
🙂
Pete
Hi my good friend Tania ,
It is easy for you to say
Besides ,Not all European countries are the member of the UE block.
As an independent body , Catalonian have every right to shun or recognize a foreign entity.
All they ever asked is to be left alone.
They want to start on their own.
What is wrong with it ?
Is it really too much to ask ?
Just ,Let them be !
Pete
Hi,
You are right , Peter.
Let them be!
U know
If u really want to go all out in Halloween eve. If u really into experiencing rather living a creepy Halloween eve with all the eery ,irksome feelings it could invoke , U need To try halloween eve in Toronto ‘s downtown alleys.
I am telling you
There is nothing like it
Especially , one particular side street which is infamous for its one week- long idiosyncratic , spooky Halloween events.
And jack-o- lantern contests
There is this intersection on said street which is literally a Halloween hub.
The back street- all along- is flanked with these rugged , dingy ,old looking damp bars. Some of them are two-stories some below the street level.
In Halloween eve , people even from the neighbouring cities swarm there to have the time of their life.
And tonight is no exception
I m looking forward to it
Can’t wait to get off work and straight down there.
To draw you a picture ,the narrow dim street with its creepy looking bars gives off the impression of one of Charles Dickens’ slumdogs in his world-wide renown book : Oliver Twist!!!
As a matter of fact tonight I am outing myself as one of the characters in Charles Dikens’ book.:)))
Toronto goes all rowdy tonight
Halloween rules 🙂
🙂
Pete
Hey Tania
Glad u we see eye in eye in that
I m looking forward to see what Emiliano has to say about all this as he is witnessing it first hand.
He lives in Madrid , if I m not mistaken
He could bring a fresh perspective to it
May be
We are missing something here
U know
My source is multi media coverage
Not a reliable source , I am afraid!!
Anyway
Thanks for the input Tania
Yours
Hi,
What scandal… Kevin Spacey ‘s statement!
He was one of my favorite actors.
Hi,
When you have time maybe you can explain us the meaning
of the phrases: Menacing spirits of the dead,
poltergeist, fear mongers, wreak havoc.
Thank you in advance.
Hi,
I have seen on TV the celebration of the Halloween
at the White House.
Hi,
I have watched on TV news about a possible pandemic ,
“pandemia “, because of the cocaine consume.
Is it true?
Peter, perfect explanation.
I was going to say just the same to Lili but you said it even better.
Congratulations bro, you dominate the Language.
Well my best wishes to all you dear friends.
May be I am now a cyclothymic
person since Cuca is not here at home
so sometimes I like to write in English but other
I let pass some days till the moment I could open
the ESL blog and read to my friends.
Sorry, I know I have to be more regular but it is
not my way of living now.
Nice to read so many posts, sure it has been a
pleasure.
Till soon, emiliano