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The Spy Who Didn't Love Me
The Spy Who Didn't Love Me
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Hello, everyone! Let me start out by addressing the elephant in the room… I’ve been on something of a hiatus from this site, and I apologize. I’ve been dealing with an illness in my family and just haven’t had a lot of time. But I’m back and looking forward to creating more useful, interesting content for you.
It’s very apropos that this is blog post number 007 — Double O Seven, like James Bond — because it just so happens that this story is actually about a spy of sorts. I don’t know if you’ve seen any of the James Bond movies, but one of them is called The Spy Who Loved Me. Well, this story is about a spy who definitely didn’t love me.
I've been dealing with...This is the PRESENT PERFECT PROGRESSIVE tense, and it's used to refer to actions that started somewhat recently, have continued up the present, and are still going on. It's characterized by the pattern have/has been -ing, and the underlying time frame for this tense is lately. So when someone asks you What have you been doing?, they mean ...doing lately.
the elephant in the room [ðiyɛ́lǝfɛnɪnðǝrùm] If you were in a room with a lot of people and there was an elephant in the room, it would naturally be very hard to miss, even if you tried to pretend it wasn't there. The phrase to address/talk about the elephant in the room is used when there’s something GLARINGLY OBVIOUS that may not be very pleasant to talk about, but needs to be acknowledged.
apropos[æ̀prǝpʰóu̯]
Note the two stresses, and the two different pronunciations of /p/. Most people pronounce this as if it were two separate words: àpra póe This word comes from the French à-propos, hence the strange spelling and pronunciation. When something is apropos, it's FITTING, in the sense that it has a particular relevance to something, often coincidentally or conveniently so. For instance, say your son is a lawyer. You’re in the supermarket returning some meat because it’s bad. The manager doesn’t want to refund you your money, so you tell him you’re going to call your lawyer. At that moment, your son calls and you say, “How apropos that you should call! I may need your help!” In other words, it was very FITTING that his lawyer son should call right when you needed him. Similarly, in this post, it's so fitting that the number 007 happens to also be James Bond's agent number.
Note the two stresses, and the two different pronunciations of /p/. Most people pronounce this as if it were two separate words: àpra póe This word comes from the French à-propos, hence the strange spelling and pronunciation. When something is apropos, it's FITTING, in the sense that it has a particular relevance to something, often coincidentally or conveniently so. For instance, say your son is a lawyer. You’re in the supermarket returning some meat because it’s bad. The manager doesn’t want to refund you your money, so you tell him you’re going to call your lawyer. At that moment, your son calls and you say, “How apropos that you should call! I may need your help!” In other words, it was very FITTING that his lawyer son should call right when you needed him. Similarly, in this post, it's so fitting that the number 007 happens to also be James Bond's agent number.
Double O Seven James Bond is a fictional secret agent who works for the British Secret Service, and his number is 007, read double-oh-seven. In everyday spoken English, we have a tendency to read zero as the letter o. This is true of all Englishes — not just American.
a spy of sorts | This phrase is used with nouns when one doesn't want to be too direct or exact in labeling someone — or oneself — as something. It has a nuance of «I guess you could call {someone} a kind of [noun]». In this story, for instance, I refer to my neighbor as a spy of sorts. This basically means that he isn't a spy in reality, but there's something spy-like about him, he has certain personality traits or did/does something that would liken him to a spy. It has a nuance of KIND OF, BUT NOT EXACTLY.
it just so happens | This phrase is used to preface a coincidence. You may also hear funny enough used in this way.
⦿ something of a... ⦿ somewhat of a ⦿ a (little) bit of a… ⦿ a… of sortsThe above four phrases are all used to attribute a characteristic or quality to someone or something without going into much detail. Sometimes they're used for brevity — when there’s no need to go into detail. For instance, I use it in something of a hiatus [hayéyɖɪs], a break or time away from something, to refer to the fact that I’ve been away A RATHER LONG TIME without detailing exactly how (embarrassingly) long it’s been. Using something of makes me sound a bit contrite and spares me from having to specify how long. When used in reference to oneself, it expresses a certain humility. For instance, it sounds more humble to say I'm something of a expert in cars, than simply I'm an expert in cars, which can sound a bit boastful. It's also used when you don't want to be abrupt. For instance, when asked if they believe in God, one could answer I'm something of a skeptic.
My brother's something of a linguist; he speaks three languages fluently and is learning Chinese.
I've been somewhat of a downer lately and I apologize. Let's do something fun this weekend — your call.
________________⦿ downer | Someone who ruins people's moods with their negative attitude. ⦿ your call | I'll let you choose.
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