Happy Holidays
Joulun vietosta on tullut Yhdysvalloissa kiista. Pelkkä sana Christmas on punainen vaate monelle maan ei-kristitylle, sillä se tulee sanasta Christ eli Kristus! Perustuslain mukaan valtion kouluissa uskonto ja opetus on pidettävä erillään. Joululoma onkin muutettu virallisesti talvilomaksi ja pääsiäisloma kevätlomaksi.
Kiistan seuraukset näkyvät nyt monella taholla: Washingtonin Capitolilla kimaltava koristeltu kuusi ei ole enää virallisesti joulukuusi vaan Holiday Tree - juhlapyhäkuusi! Ja Macyn tavaratalon ikkunoissa toivotetaan Happy Holidays!
WOW factor
Englanninkielisessä törmäämme usein ilmaisuihin, joita on vaikea kääntää. Esim Wow factor. Jos näemme jotain tosi upeeta, niin että olemme pudottaa silmät päästämme, osaamme kyllä sanoa:VAU!
No, tämä VAU on yhtäkuin Wow factor - vau-tekijä/ ominaisuus/komponentti/faktori. Samoin käytetään myös ilmaisua cool factor.
This year, two new hotels have opened that are sure to impress hip travelers.TWELWE at Atlantic Station is a hotel/condo hybrid, with a Bob Amick restaurant, Lobby, providing a high energy dining and cocktail atmosphere. In Downtown Atlanta, The Glenn Hotel has just opened, featuring the trendy NYC/Miami chain B.E.D. as its restaurant.
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USA National Anthem Lyrics
United States of America
The Star Spangled Banner
Oh, say! can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming;
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there:
Oh, say! does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In fully glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh, long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution! No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Oh, thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation! Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust":
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.