又中又英｜Silly Season

Silly Season

It’s that time of year again, known as the silly season. Journalists dread (fear) the silly season. Schools close for one or two months during the summer. Most people, including politicians, go on summer vacations. That’s why summer is the time when there is a dearth of news, especially political news. The word “dearth” means not enough of something. A dearth of news means not enough news. But journalists need to find enough news to fill newspapers. That’s why they dread the silly season. They find trivial (unimportant) news to fill newspapers during the summer.

The silly season, therefore, means the summer when newspapers are full of trivial news because there is not enough important news, especially important political news. I read a funny news report recently that reminded me of the silly season. A Canadian buyer was negotiating to buy grain from a farmer. The buyer wrote a contract for the grain, signed it, and texted a copy of the contract to the seller. The seller responded with a “thumbs up” emoji but did not ship the grain. The buyer took the seller to court, saying a “thumbs up” means the seller had agreed to the contract.

The seller disputed this, arguing his “thumbs up” only meant he had received the text message but was expecting a fax or email so he could review and sign the contract too. The judge, however, ruled a “thumbs up” meant the farmer had agreed to the contract. Legal experts now say people should think before responding with emojis such as a handshake or OK. To me, the judge’s ruling was silly.

又到了一年的這個時候了，就是被稱為「無聊季節」（silly season）的時節。新聞工作者都很害怕（dread）無聊季節（silly season）。學校會在夏天停課放一至兩個月暑假。大部份人，包括政客，也會在暑期度假。因此夏天就會缺乏新聞（dearth of news），尤其是政治新聞。Dearth是缺乏、不足，a dearth of news就是不夠新聞。但新聞工作者還是得找足夠的新聞去充撐報紙的版面，因此他們畏懼（dread）這無聊季節（silly season）。在夏天，他們會找一些無關痛癢的瑣碎（trivial）新聞去填滿報紙版面。

因此，silly season是指到了夏天的時候，報紙滿是無聊瑣碎的（trivial）新聞，因為根本沒有足夠的重要新聞，尤其是重要的政治新聞。我最近就讀到一個有趣的新聞報道，令我想起了無聊季節（silly season）。一個加拿大的買家早前跟一個農夫協商，要向對方買穀物。買家為了那批穀物制定了一份合約，簽了，傳了合約的一個副本給那位賣家。賣家回了一個「豎大姆指」的表情符號，但並沒有送運穀物。買家將賣家告上法院，說「豎大姆指」是指賣家已經同意合約。

賣家爭論，反指他「豎大姆指」僅僅代表他已收到訊息，但還在等着傳真或是電郵，好讓他能細閱及簽署合約。然而，法官裁定，「豎大姆指」的意思是農夫已經確認了合約。法律專家現在說，人們傳出表情符號例如握手或OK前，好應三思。於我而言，法官的裁決是愚蠢的。

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Michael Chugani褚簡寧
中譯：七刻