The following three bits of American were in this week's
Time. What do they mean ?
1)[Headline to a piece on Iraq] 'Don't punt on the troops issue'. The context suggests this to mean 'don't speculate' or 'don't guess'. Why 'punt'? In English 'punt', in rugby football, means to kick a ball from the hand, usually to gain distance. A 'punter' is an informal word for a person who bets on some sporting event.We sometimes say 'It's worth a punt' not meaning 'It's worth an Irish pound coin pre-euro' but 'It's worth taking a small gamble on: it has quite a good chance, but is not a racing certainty'
2) "Bush had to invite his father's trusted consiglieres". What are consiglieres? The M-W dictionary on AP mentions counsel, but in England 'counsel' is a barrister, what Americans might call 'legal counsel'. M-W also mentions the Mafia consiglieres (consiglieri?) which suggests that the choice of the word consigliere may carry some tone of disapproval, be a bit pejorative.
3) [On Iraq, the Iraq question,people in Washington joke] : " It's a Mick Jagger moment. You can always get what you want. The question is 'Can we get what we need?'"
What has this statement to do with Mick Jagger? Is it a reference to some Stones' lyric? ( Not, presumably, 'Paint it black'
) What does it mean?
4)And here's one on TV today. It's from a scriptwriter hired to write the James Bond film script : " It came from left field". The context suggested he may have meant' The offer to do the job was a complete surprise' or it might be that he meant ' The suggestion that Casino Royale be made again was strange' (the rights had belonged to another company and there had been earlier versions of the film ). This image of 'left field' sounds like something from sport. If so what does it mean in sport?
