This Thursday is Thanksgiving, and an American tradition on Thanksgiving is the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (see Cultural English 60).

Macy’s is a chain (business with many locations) of department stores in the U.S., selling anything from clothing and cosmetics to homewares (items used in the home, including furniture, home decorations, and items for the kitchen). A parade is a public celebration where people march (walk) along the street while other people on the side of the road are watching and cheering.

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade has been held since 1924 and is shown on U.S. television each year. It’s best known for its floats (a flat surface attached to a truck with a display on it) and especially the giant (very big) helium (a very light gas, chemical symbol “He”) balloons that float (move above the ground) along the parade route (path).

First included in 1968, the Snoopy balloon has appeared more than any other character. Other popular balloons in the parade’s history include Mickey Mouse, Superman, Kermit the Frog, Betty Boop, and Hello Kitty. Every year, new balloons are added to include popular TV and movie characters. Check out this year’s lineup (group of people or things scheduled to appear).

Here’s some old footage (recording movie film) showing the parade in 1939:

And here’s a recent Macy’s video showing what goes into creating those giant balloons, focusing on the “balloonatics,” the people who create those balloons and make them float. (“Balloonatics” is a made-up (not real) term, combining the words “balloon” and “fanatics,” who are people who like something a lot and think about it all the time.)

We have a lot to be thankful for this year. We are grateful that new listeners continue to find us and we are particularly thankful for our old listeners, who have stuck with us (remained with us) this year.

From all of us here at ESLPod.com, Happy Thanksgiving!

~ Jeff and Lucy

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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

Here I am on Saturday afternoon enjoying my coffee. I’m not sitting outside of a cafe. I’m sitting at a parklet in Santa Monica.

You know what a park is: it’s a green space with trees where people can go to enjoy nature, play sports and games, and just relax. But in a place like LA where there isn’t enough room for a lot of parks, some cities are building parklets.

The suffix “-let” is usually used with nouns to mean something smaller than the original. For example, a booklet is a small or thin book with fewer pages than a regular book. A ringlet is a piece of hair made into a small curl, usually on little girls. When used with animals, “-let” means a baby animal: a sow (female pig) has piglets.

These parklets — or small parks — are placed on the street and take the space of one or more parking spaces, next to the sidewalk (walkway along the street).

Here’s another parklet, this one in downtown Los Angeles:

If you don’t mind a little exhaust (gas from cars, trucks, and other vehicles), they’re a nice place to sit, relax, and people-watch (watching people go by when you don’t have anything else to do).

~ Jeff

Photo credit: City of Los Angeles

I feel bad for parents dealing with teething babies (babies with growing teeth). It seems nothing can soothe (calm and quiet) them when they have a toothache (pain in the tooth).

But if you were a parent in the U.S. in the 1880s, and you went to the pharmacy (store where drugs and medications are sold) for something to help your baby, the pharmacist may have handed you (given you) some Cocaine Toothache Drops (see photo).

Cocaine is a highly-addictive (something your body wants and needs very badly) illegal (against the law) drug. It is usually used in the form of white powder (very small solid pieces, like dust).

Drops are small solid candies that you put in your mouth and suck on while they slowly dissolve (turn from a solid to a liquid).

These cocaine drops promised an instantaneous (immediate) cure (something that will make you healthy again). It’s not clear how much cocaine was in each drop, but I’m pretty sure the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) would not approve it today. The FDA is the government agency that now regulates (makes rules about) drugs sold in the U.S.

I wonder what parents 100 years from now will say about some of the medicines we give children today!

~ Jeff

Image Credit: National Institute of Health