First panel: This is terrible! 2: This contract Bumstead put together has more holes than a piece of swiss cheese! (Hole here means "漏洞“) ( The cliche "more holes than a piece of swiss chess!=your contract/theory/idea has a lot of 漏洞 --> 比 swiss chesse 更多( 漏 )洞.)
3: His sloopy work has cost me way too much moeny over the years!
4: This time he gets fired!!
5: On the other hand, (i) if I do fire Bumstead, there’s no guarantee that I’ll find somebody else(ii) who would take the kind of guff I dish out.
(i) Note the use of "on the other hand" is for something opposite. It is NOT use for "additional reasons", but "contrary reason."
(ii) Note: "somebody else", and not "somebody". I mentioned that several times in various posts on this forum. My high school English teacher drummed that in my head. "Somebody" means everyone, including yourself. "Somebody else"=everyone else except you.
"This kind of guff"="this kind of nonsense"
I dish out=> (to dish out something)=to deal out/to dispense: E.g. he is dishing out advice left and right. George is a cruel teacher; he dishes out harsh punishment to the kids for very minor offences.
6: Unbelievable! He’s got me over a barrel.
(When you are "over a barrel", you are in a weak or defenceless position. When you have someone over the barrel, you have him at your mercy.)
7: Bumstead! You really take the cake, you know that?!!
("Takes the cake"=you are the most (either good or bad)=you are the worst/your are the best=(either extreme: Can be used for 你是最牛的/你是最采的
8:I wonder what that was all about?
#67 Padded Resume A "padded resume" is a resume (简历) or C.V. (curriculum vitae) that is exaggerated. E.g. in this cartoon, the pigeon is just a simple, regular pigeon. He must have submitted his resume to the pig, in which he described himself as "the most unique and exotic birds in all of North America." This cartoon is making fun of the trend of "padding one’s resume."
#69 McMansion From: Workspy words/McMansion.asp
{}McMansion
(muhk.MAN.shun) n. A large, opulent house, especially a new house that has a size and style that doesn’t fit in with the surrounding houses.
Example Citation:
In a world of bloated S.U.V.’s and rambling McMansions, there are times when smaller is better.
—Steven E. Brier, "Nikon’s New Digital Camera Fits Easily in a Pocket," The New York Times, August 16, 2001
Notes:
The word McMansion has only been a part of the lexicon for a little over ten years, but it has already undergone a fairly significant change in meaning. In fact, the word’s current meaning seems to be almost the opposite of its original sense. As the earliest citation shows, McMansion used to mean something similar to cookie-cutter house (that is, a house that has a bland style that’s identical to all the nearby houses). This fits nicely with the formation of the word, which is McDonalds (the fast-food chain) + mansion. After all, what could be more bland and "cookie cutter" than the fare served by McDonalds? {}
Note from me: In Canada, houses are called Monster Houses when an older and/or smaller house is bought, dismantled, and a large house (out-of-place with the neighourhood) is build as a replacement. Sometimes it is a mismatching set of additions that are added to a much smaller house. In the 70s and 80s, a lot of Hong Kong multimillionaires were buying up small houses in Vancouver and Toronto, and, much to the dsimay of the neighbours (and the previous owners), turn them into Monster houses.