Guest Blogger: Introducing Abbe Skones

400px-A_possumToday, I’m very happy to welcome a guest blogger: Abbe Skones.

Abbe is a former (in the past) ESL teacher in Los Angeles and has worked as a Spanish-language translator. Unlike Jeff, Warren, and me, Abbe is a native of (was born in) California.

Do you remember Warren’s post earlier this year called “The Animals are Coming to Town!” about finding wildlife or wild animals in the city? Here are two short anecdotes (short and funny or interesting stories) about her – and her neighbor’s – experience with animals in their own backyard and even their own home!

Please join me in welcoming Abbe to the ESL Podcast Blog, and I hope you enjoy her amusing (funny and enjoyable) stories as much as I do.

~ Lucy
…..

I was born and grew up in Los Angeles. In the mid-1950s, at about age 10, I lived with my parents and a Cocker Spaniel dog in a small house with a large backyard with grass. We had one tenant (someone who lives on your property who is not a part of your family, usually paying rent), who lived in the backyard—a gopher.

A gopher is a small brown animal with warm blood similar to a squirrel but larger. It digs tunnels or passages underground, where it lives and from where it emerges (comes out) aboveground to eat plants. The entrance to a tunnel, which is simply a hole in the ground, is marked by (can be seen or identified by) a mound (round bump, like a small hill) of earth or dirt.

Our Cocker Spaniel spent hours racing from mound to mound with high hopes of catching a gopher for dinner. Cocker Spaniels are classified as (considered; said to be) sporting dogs because they usually help hunters (people who kill animals for food or as a type of sport) and participate in other activities in the field, and so our dog was following a family tradition.

My dad had his own reasons for hunting down the gophers: If he didn’t, the gophers would have eaten all the plants in our yard!

Our dog raced from hole to hole hoping to surprise a gopher as he peered (looked carefully) through the entrance mound. At the same time, my dad, also running from hole to hole, tried to flush (have large amounts of water pass through) the gopher’s tunnels with the garden hose (a long rubber or flexible plastic tube through which water runs).

Who was the winner in this ongoing track-and-field (set of athletic or sports event, including running, jumping, and other activities in an open area) event? I don’t remember seeing any gopher exiting his hole in a panic (alarmed; frightened) to avoid the teeth of the family dog or the flood from the hose. Eventually, I guess it grew tired of its persistent (never stopping) landlords (owners of a property) and dug new tunnels to greener pastures (more attractive places).

…..

Fast-forward (move forward quickly) about 30 years: I was still living in Los Angeles, now in another small house with a large backyard with tall trees and a big lawn (open area with grass). This time, the main character of the story was a possum (see photo).

In the apartment next door, a woman lived alone with her cat. One day, she went out of her house briefly to retrieve something (get something; bring something back) and left the front door open. When she returned, she stepped into her living room to find a possum stretched out (with arms and legs apart, in a relaxed position) relaxing on the sofa in front of her TV. My neighbor tried to drive (force out) the possum from her home with no success, and the cat wasn’t much help!

In the end, the city’s Department of Animal Control – the government department that captures and takes away unwanted animals – came to the rescue (helped) and saved my neighbor and her cat from the intruder (unwanted visitor in one’s home).

…..

I hope that you find these anecdotes entertaining. At the same time, I write them here to help us think about our relationship with and responsibility to the animals into whose home we have moved, uninvited.

~ Abbe

Photo Credit: A possum.JPG from Wikipedia

Posted in Life in the United States | 11 Comments

Podcasts This Week (July 29, 2013)

Is your limited English standing in your way? Do you want to improve your English now?

Learn English even faster with the help of the Learning Guide. In it, you’ll get more vocabulary, language explanations, sample sentences, comprehension questions, cultural notes, and more.

Get the Learning Guide and support ESL Podcast today by becoming a Basic or Premium Member!

………

ON MONDAY
ESL Podcast 916 – Being Forced Out of a Position

In the Learning Guide: Get a full transcript (written version of every word you hear), vocabulary list and sample sentences, and comprehension questions.
In “What Else Does it Mean,” learn the other meanings of “to step down” and “to be rid of.”
In the “Culture Note,” learn about “Golden Parachutes.”
“A ‘golden parachute’ is an agreement between an employer and an employee…” – READ MORE in the Learning Guide

ON WEDNESDAY
English Cafe 409

Topics: American Authors – Rachel Carson; the board game Monopoly; gas guzzler and other car descriptors; money order; way to establish or way to establishing

In the Learning Guide:  Get a full transcript (written version of every word you hear).
In “What Insiders Know,” you will read about “The Sims.”
“‘The Sims’ is a ‘life simulation’ video game that allows players to select a character…” – READ MORE in the Learning Guide

ON FRIDAY
ESL Podcast 917 – Types of Families

In the Learning Guide: Get a full transcript (written version of every word you hear), vocabulary list and sample sentences, and comprehension questions.
In “What Else Does it Mean,” learn the other meanings of “partner” and “to bring up.”
In the “Culture Note,” learn about “Unconventional Families on TV.”
“In the past, American television shows such as Leave It to Beaver mostly ‘portrayed’ (showed) ‘conventional’ American families…” – READ MORE in the Learning Guide

 

Posted in About ESL Podcast | 6 Comments

Can’t Eat It, Can’t Sell It, What Do You Do?

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAWhen I went to the refrigerator this morning to pour myself a glass of orange juice, I noticed a label near the top of the container that read “Sell by Sep 10.” I looked around and found a similar label on the milk that read “Jul 29” and on the eggs “Jun 26.”

Most U.S. food producers (people who prepare food for sale) place labels like these on on their perishable (food that may become bad quickly) and canned (food that is processed and placed in metal containers) foods. Fresh (recently picked or prepared) meat and produce (fruits and vegetables) don’t usually get labels because people eat them soon after they buy them.

Food labels aren’t required by the government. Food producers use them to help customers know when the food is fresh and safe to eat. Typically (the way something usually happens) there are three kinds of labels:

  •  “Sell by” labels, the most common, refer to the last day a store should sell the product. As the sell-by date nears, stores usually move these products to the front of the shelf so customers will buy them before the date on the label. Even if the date has passed, these foods are usually safe to eat for up to 10 days after the sell-by date if they’re stored properly. Meat and poultry (chicken, turkey, etc.) can be stored even longer if they’re frozen.
  • “Use by” identifies the last day that the product will be fresh and have good flavor and texture (how something feels). After this date, the food is still safe to eat, but it may not taste as good.
  • The “Expiration date” label on a food product has a simple message: if the date has passed, don’t use it.

What happens if the sell-by or use-by dates pass and no one has bought the products? Since most foods are safe to eat even after they begin to lose their flavor, stores try to find alternative (other) uses for them. According to an article in Forbes, fresh vegetables and meats may be cooked and sold at the store’s deli (delicatessen), where they sell cold cuts (thinly cut pieces of cooked meat that are eaten cold), special cheeses, and salads and other prepared foods.

Canned, boxed, and bottled products are frequently sold to discount stores, where you’ll find outdated (old; after the date) but usable cans of soup, boxes of cereal, and bottles of ketchup and salad dressing. Many stores donate (give) outdated products to food banks (organizations that give food to poor and out-of-work people) and soup kitchens (organizations that prepare meals for homeless people).

In spite of (without being affected by) stores’ attempts to sell or give away food products while they’re still usable, some food still becomes unusable and must be thrown away. In short, it becomes garbage.

Some stores haul (transport by truck) this unusable food to a landfill (a place where waste is buried in the ground), where it decays (is slowly destroyed by a natural process) and releases methane (a burnable gas) into the air, which contributes to (helps cause) global warming. Many stores send their food waste (something that can’t be used) to plants (place where something is made) where it is converted (changed into something different) into compost, a mixture of natural products used to make soil better for gardening and farming.

Krogers, one of the largest supermarket companies in the U.S., has an even better idea. Not too long ago, they demonstrated (showed how something works) a plant in the city of Compton, near Los Angeles, that makes them the first company to convert food waste into electricity.

At this plant, the waste is pulverized (crushed into tiny pieces) and mixed with waste water from a nearby dairy (farm that produces milk) to make what one executive calls “a ‘juicy milkshake’ of trash.” This mixture is pumped into a large tank (large container for storing liquid or gas), and the oxygen in the tank is pumped out. Bacteria (very small living things) in the tank convert the mixture into methane gas, which rises to the top of the tank. The methane is taken from the tank and used to power three nearby generators (machines that produce electricity).

Krogers’ first plant produces enough electricity to power 2,000 homes. And the solid material that is left over becomes enough organic (natural; made from living things) fertilizer to feed 8,000 acres (3,237 hectares) of soil for farming and gardening.

In addition to the electrical power and fertilizer produced by the plant, Kroger says this process will reduce (make smaller) its waste by 150 tons (130 metric tons) a day. Since the plant produces no bad odors, it can be located in the city, and there is no need for Krogers’ trucks to make six trips a day – nearly 500,000 miles a year (805,000 km) – to haul the waste to the nearest composting plant.

Eventually (after a period of time), Krogers expects this project to save the company 110 million dollars. They’re so confident (sure it will happen the way they want) in this plan that they’re already planning more plants in the Los Angeles area and other locations across the country.

~ Warren Ediger – English coach/tutor and creator of Successful English, where you will find clear explanations and practical suggestions for better English.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.

Posted in Life in the United States | 13 Comments

Eighth Anniversary Video

450px-San_Diego_FireworksIt’s hard to believe that ESL Podcast started this day eight years ago.

You would think that after eight years, we would be older, if not wiser (smarter). But amazingly, we have enjoyed these eight years so much that it has actually made us look younger and more better looking.

You don’t believe us? Take a look at our Eighth Anniversary Video.

On this anniversary, we want to thank all of you for listening to our podcasts, reading and participating in our blog, and spreading the word (telling others) about ESL Podcast. We want to especially thank our basic and premium members and our donors for making the continuation of ESL Podcast possible.

We are truly grateful for our listeners.  Thank you for your support and please join us in celebrating our eighth anniversary!

~ Jeff and Lucy

Photo Credit:  San Diego Fireworks jpg from Wikipedia
Posted in Announcements | 39 Comments

Podcasts This Week (July 22, 2013)

We are grateful to our members and donors, because we are only able to produce this podcast with the generous help of our listeners.

If you enjoy our podcasts, please consider supporting ESL Podcast by becoming a Basic or Premium Member today!

………

ON MONDAY
ESL Podcast 914 – Wanting Peace and Quiet

In the Learning Guide: Get a full transcript (written version of every word you hear), vocabulary list and sample sentences, and comprehension questions.
In “What Else Does it Mean,” learn the other meanings of “knock” and “to rob (someone) of (something).”
In the “Culture Note,” learn about “Unusual Hotels.”
“Some travelers like to stay in luxury (refined, sophisticated, elegant, and expensive) hotels, but others are looking for a…” – READ MORE in the Learning Guide

ON WEDNESDAY
English Cafe 408

Topics: American Presidents – Gerald Ford; you bet; between versus in between

In the Learning Guide:  Get a full transcript (written version of every word you hear).
In “What Insiders Know,” you will read about “Saturday Night Live Presidential Impressions.”
Saturday Night Live is a live television “sketch comedy” (humorous show with many short acts showing funny situations) and…” – READ MORE in the Learning Guide

ON FRIDAY
ESL Podcast 915 – Learning to Read Music

In the Learning Guide: Get a full transcript (written version of every word you hear), vocabulary list and sample sentences, and comprehension questions.
In “What Else Does it Mean,” learn the other meanings of “piece” and “on pitch.”
In the “Culture Note,” learn about “Music Education in Schools.”
“In the United States, “music programs” (programs designed to teach children about music) in public schools are being reduced due to…” – READ MORE in the Learning Guide

Posted in Announcements | 3 Comments

Twinkies are Back!

Hostess_twinkies_tweakedThere are few American foods more beloved (loved very much) than the Twinkie. This modest (not fancy) snack cake with a white filling (a type of food that is found inside other foods) is over 80 years old and is part of the childhoods of many Americans, at least the unhealthy ones like mine.

Since their invention (creation) in 1930, they had been made by the large snack food company Hostess. However, in May of 2012, Hostess filed for bankruptcy (officially stated that they had no money to continue) because sales were down, since many people had switched to (changed to; were selecting other) healthier snack foods. The costs of labor (worker salaries) and production (making the product) were now just too high.

The news that Hostess would stop production of Twinkies was shocking (very surprising) for many Americans. People who grew up with Twinkies had a hard time imagining the demise (death; end) of such an iconic (representing some idea, period, or experience) American food. In fact, there was a run on (selling very quickly until all are sold) the remaining Twinkies in stores.

But for those who can’t imagine life without Twinkies, there is good news. Another company purchased part of the Hostess company that makes Twinkies earlier this year. Twinkies returned to American stores this week.

To be honest, I have not had a Twinkie in over 25 years. The list of ingredients (things combined to make a food) is a parent’s or doctor’s nightmare (bad dream). However, I can’t deny (say it isn’t true) that Twinkies hold a special place in my heart and I’m glad they’re back. To mark the occasion (celebrate an event), I might go out and buy a package of Twinkies, open it, and take one bite. Eating any more might kill me.

Is there a snack food where you live that is beloved, but that is also very bad for you?

~ Lucy

 Photo Credit:  Hostess Twinkies from Wikipedia

Posted in News and Current Events | 13 Comments

Uptown Girl Looking for Her Dr. Bennett

noun_project_96_512x512x32Where do rich people live in Los Angeles? If you ask that question to an Angelino (a resident of Los Angeles), you will get many different answers, but one answer you will not get is “South Los Angeles.” Everyone who lives here knows that South L.A. is a dangerous place where you are unlikely to find the wealthy (people who are rich).

Now ask someone from Chicago this same question. Again, you’ll get a variety of (different; various) answers, but few people will say “the South Side.” The South Side of Chicago is, as Jim Croce sang many years ago, the “baddest (worst; most dangerous) part of town.” In fact, you will get similar answers if you ask people that question in Minneapolis, Boston, and many other major (large; important) U.S. cities:. The common perception (opinion; view) is that poor people live in the southern parts of the city.

There is even scientific research to back up (to support) this idea that people generally think that the southern part of any city is the worst part to live in. In one study, researchers gave people a fictitious (made-up; invented; not real) map of a city. Then they asked them to identify the part of the city where they thought someone named “Dr. Bennett” might live. More than 70% of the people said in the northern part of the city. Almost no one chose the southernmost (most to the south) part of the city (10%).

I’m not saying that in all cases it is actually true that poor people live in the southern part of an American city. But that is the common opinion of many Americans.

Why do we think north is rich and south is poor? Some geographers (people who study the physical characteristics of the Earth) and psychologists have speculated (guessed) that it is because our culture associates “up” with good and “down” with bad.

When you’re feeling “up,” you’re happy. If you’re “down,” you’re sad. Christians believe Heaven is somewhere above us, “up there,” and Hell is “down” below. An “Uptown Girl” is, in Billy Joel’s song, a rich girl from the wealthy (that is, northern) part of the city.

“Up” on a map is, of course, the top of the map, which since the discovery of the north magnetic pole and the compass has been used to represent the northern part of whatever the map shows. We put the southern part on the bottom of the map. North is up and happy; south is down and sad.

Do the rich people in your city live in the northern part or the southern part? Is there a similar perception of “north = rich, south = poor” where you live?

~Jeff

Image credit: “Compass” from The Noun Project

Posted in Life in the United States | 25 Comments

Podcasts This Week (July 15, 2013)

Don’t let the summer go by without improving your English. Get the full benefits of ESL Podcast by getting the Learning Guide. We designed the Learning Guide to help you learn English better and faster. Get more vocabulary, language explanations, sample sentences, comprehension questions, cultural notes, and more.

Get the Learning Guide and support ESL Podcast today by becoming a Basic or Premium Member!

………

ON MONDAY
ESL Podcast 912 – Working as a Lobbyist

In the Learning Guide: Get a full transcript (written version of every word you hear), vocabulary list and sample sentences, and comprehension questions.
In “What Else Does it Mean,” learn the other meanings of “to sway” and “let’s say.”
In the “Culture Note,” learn about “Government Officials Working as Lobbyists.”
“A “revolving door” is a round door divided into four “compartments” (sections) that slowly move in a circle, so that…” – READ MORE in the Learning Guide

ON WEDNESDAY
English Cafe 407

Topics:  Famous Americans – Jane Addams; the “Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe” counting rhyme; to double down and trickle-down; especially versus specially; dewy

In the Learning Guide:  Get a full transcript (written version of every word you hear).
In “What Insiders Know,” you will read about the children’s game “Duck, Duck, Goose.”
“One of the most popular and well-known games played by young children in the United States is Duck, Duck, Goose…” – READ MORE in the Learning Guide

ON FRIDAY
ESL Podcast 913 – Experiencing Motion Sickness

In the Learning Guide: Get a full transcript (written version of every word you hear), vocabulary list and sample sentences, and comprehension questions.
In “What Else Does it Mean,” learn the other meanings of “dizzy” and “rocking.”
In the “Culture Note,” learn about “Shaky Camera Techniques.”
“Over time, the film industry has developed many “techniques” (ways of doing something) to produce a “stable” (not moving) image…” – READ MORE in the Learning Guide

Posted in Announcements | 4 Comments

Where’s the Exit*?

VoyagerThe Voyager I spacecraft was launched (to send a spacecraft into the sky) into space almost 36 years ago, in September, 1977. That was the year Jimmy Carter became the 39th president of the U.S. The year the Apple II, Atari, and Commodore personal computers first went on sale. The year Elizabeth II celebrated her 25th year as Queen of England. The year Elvis Presley died. And the year the first Star Wars movie was released.

Since its launch, Voyager has traveled more than 11.5 billion miles (about 18.5 billion kilometers). It flew by Jupiter in 1979 and Saturn in 1980 and collected important information and photos of both planets. But it didn’t stop there. It has continued to fly toward interstellar (among the stars) space. But to the surprise of many scientists, Voyager still hasn’t reached interstellar space. Rather, it’s “entered a region (area) that no one expected and no one can yet explain,” according to a New York Times article.

What has happened to Voyager is like walking out of your house to go into the backyard to play. But when you step out of the house, you enter a porch (an entrance at the front or back of a house with a floor and roof but no walls) you didn’t know was there. And the porch turns out to be much larger than anyone would have expected. In other words, the exit wasn’t where scientists expected it to be.

Voyager’s experience tells us that our solar system (our sun and its planets) is much larger than anyone imagined. Voyager has traveled more than 36,000 miles per hour (about 58,000 kph) for almost 36 years – more than 11.5 billion miles – and it’s only gotten to the back porch of our solar system, not yet into the backyard of interstellar space. Rebecca Rosen, writing in The Atlantic, says that “the hardest thing to wrap one’s mind around (think about and understand) in astronomy … is scale: just how big … objects are, how far away they lie, and how long ago they formed (started to exist).”

While the Voyager story tells us something about the absolute (total; not compared to anything else) size of our solar system, Rosen’s story illustrates (shows us) something about the relative (one thing compared to another) size of the planets that make up our solar system.

Rosen tells the story of Ron Miller, a space artist. While looking at a photo of the moon over Death Valley, a part of the Mojave Desert in eastern California, he wondered what would happen if he replaced (removed one thing and put in another) the moon in the photo with each of the planets. He calculated (used numbers to find out) how large each planet would be in the photo if it were the same distance from earth as the moon. Then he scaled (made larger or smaller) each planet to the correct size and put them in the photo in place of the moon. You can see the results here.

Imagine sitting in your backyard watching Jupiter or Saturn rise after the sun goes down. Or imagine the blue glow (soft light) of Neptune or Uranus while driving through the countryside (rural area) at night. How would you feel if one of the planets appeared on the horizon (the line where the earth meets the sky) rather than the moon?

*exit = the way out of a room, building, airplane, etc.; the place where vehicles can leave a freeway (high-speed road) and connect with another road

~ Warren Ediger – English tutor/coach and creator of Successful English, where you can find clear explanations and practical suggestions for better English.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.

Posted in News and Current Events | 8 Comments

Dodging the Dodgeball

NDL_amateur_gameI remember playing dodgeball when I was in elementary school. All of the players are divided into two teams. Each team stands in a straight line facing (standing opposite and looking at) each other with a large space between the two teams. One member of a team takes a large heavy rubber (thick flexible plastic) ball and throws it at the other team members, hoping to hit a player. If a player is hit, he or she is out of the game. If the player catches the ball, then the thrower (person throwing the ball) is out. That’s how dodgeball was played in my school.

Few playground games require its players to throw something as hard as you can, with the intention (purpose) of hitting the other players. And who are the targets (things or people you want to hit)? They’re not the big, tall, fast athletic players. They’re the short, weak (not strong), slow players. So in dodgeball, the littlest players are the most often hit. I was little. I got hit a lot. I hated dodgeball.

In recent years, however, dodgeball has made a resurgence (increasing in popularity after a period of little activity or interest), not among children, but among adults. Adults are forming recreational (for fun) dodgeball teams and playing in leagues (group of teams that play and try to beat each other).

These games are very different from the schoolyard (area where you play near a school) games of dodgeball. While the teams may want to win and some players take it very seriously, for many leagues, it is only partly about competition (trying to beat other players or teams). A large part of the appeal (attraction; interest) is social (relating to other people) – meeting people, having fun, and being a part of a social group.

For this reason, some of the teams have silly (funny) names, have a mix of men and women, include longtime athletes and people who have never played sports, and often end in some social activity, such as having a drink at the local bar. Some teams even play in silly costumes (clothes to make you look like someone or something), with loud music playing in the background.

Dodgeball has become so popular among adults in some cities that there was even a comedy film made about it in 2004 called DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story. (An underdog is a competitor who isn’t expected to win.)

I’ve read that dodgeball has become popular in other countries. Is dodgeball popular where you live? In your city, are there recreational adult teams and leagues that play games or sports not normally played competitively?

~ Lucy

Photo Credit: NDL amateur game from Wikipedia

Posted in Life in the United States | 14 Comments