garbagemen's softball team <shock!>

Question

OK, could someone please explain to me what's the meaning of the underlined expression?

'You from Homicide? he asked Jack and Jimmy collectively'
'We're not from garbagemen's softball team'

best wishes,

PS. what's the meaning of trailers in this sentence: When the fuse had burned down, the trailers had been sparked.

Philip · Accepted Answer

Forum_mailOK, could someone please explain to me what's the meaning of the underlined expression?

'You from Homicide? he asked Jack and Jimmy collectively'
'We're not from garbagemen's softball team'

best wishes,

PS. what's the meaning of trailers in this sentence: When the fuse had burned down, the trailers had been sparked.

Obviously the speaker feels a little superior.

The men who collect garbage probably do not have a softball team, but these detectives see themselves who collect evidence as better than those who collect garbage. There is probably a further insult in that garbagemen would play baseball (more macho) than softball (usually a women's sport).

It also occurs to the detective that it should be obvious to the observer who they are.

Clive · Answer

Hi,

OK, could someone please explain to me what's the meaning of the underlined expression?

'You from Homicide? he asked Jack and Jimmy collectively'
'We're not from garbagemen's softball team'

This is said with irony/sarcasm. The idea is 'We are not garbage men, we are police officers'.

best wishes,

PS. what's the meaning of trailers in this sentence: When the fuse had burned down, the trailers had been sparked. I have no idea. Where did you find this sentence? Can you provide some context?

Best wishes, Clive

Forum_mail · Answer

ClivePS. what's the meaning of trailers in this sentence: When the fuse had burned down, the trailers had been sparked. I have no idea. Where did you find this sentence? Can you provide some context?

Best wishes, Clive

Sure, here's the full context (everything takes place after a blaze that has happened in a law office; this stuff comes from a book by Noel Hynd "The Sandler Inquiry")

"The trailers, Corrigan explained, had been some highly flammable substance - chemically treated rags, paper, or plastic - which had been left by the arsonist to be triggered by the fuse. When the fuse had burned down, the trailers had been sparked. And rapidly spreading blaze had shot in every direction. The intense flames consuming the trailers had left the tracks"

My guess is that those trailers are some kind of 'paths' that lead the fire in the direction a firebug wants it to go... but I couldn't find any explanation in any dictionary...

Anyway, I've got some additional questions if you don't mind:

1) Shouldn't I have written "everything IS TAKING place...' instead of "everything TAKES place" ? why/why not?
2) Do we say (in this situation) "a book by Noel Hynd" or "the book by Noel Hynd" ? why?
3) "has happend" or simply "happened" ?
4) I don't get why the author uses the past perfect tense so extensively here...

best wishes!

Clive · Answer

Hi,

Sure, here's the full context (everything takes place after a blaze that has happened in a law office; this stuff comes from a book by Noel Hynd "The Sandler Inquiry")

"The trailers, Corrigan explained, had been some highly flammable substance - chemically treated rags, paper, or plastic - which had been left by the arsonist to be triggered by the fuse. When the fuse had burned down, the trailers had been sparked. And rapidly spreading blaze had shot in every direction. The intense flames consuming the trailers had left the tracks"

My guess is that those trailers are some kind of 'paths' that lead the fire in the direction a firebug wants it to go... but I couldn't find any explanation in any dictionary...

Yes. It seems like some kind of jargon used by firefighters.

Anyway, I've got some additional questions if you don't mind:

1) Shouldn't I have written "everything IS TAKING place...' instead of "everything TAKES place" ? why/why not? We normally use Simple Present rather than Continuous in narrating a story.
2) Do we say (in this situation) "a book by Noel Hynd" or "the book by Noel Hynd" ? why? Only say the specific 'the' if you expect me to already be aware of this book.
3) "has happend" or simply "happened" ? In the context of narrating a story in Simple Present tense, just say 'happens'.
4) I don't get why the author uses the past perfect tense so extensively here... You'd have to ask him. I guess he just wantd to emphasize that all this happened before .... I don't know before what. Perhaps before the law office completely burned down, or before he started investigating the cause of the fire.

Best wishes, Clive

Forum_mail · Answer

Clive2) Do we say (in this situation) "a book by Noel Hynd" or "the book by Noel Hynd" ? why? Only say the specific 'the' if you expect me to already be aware of this book.
3) "has happend" or simply "happened" ? In the context of narrating a story in Simple Present tense, just say 'happens'.
4) I don't get why the author uses the past perfect tense so extensively here... You'd have to ask him. I guess he just wantd to emphasize that all this happened before .... I don't know before what. Perhaps before the law office completely burned down, or before he started investigating the cause of the fire.

Best wishes, Clive

Thanks Clive,

Just two or three more things for clarity's sake.

You've written that I should use 'the' if I expect you to know the book... but what if I give the title? I mean, let's suppose that the book I'm telling you about is unknown to you, then I would use "a book" right? but what if I give the full title? like somewhere here above in one of my previous posts?

And the second one... you've written that instead of 'has happend' it's better to use simply 'happens' ... I've tried to put 'happens' and that's how my sentence looks now:

everything takes place after a blaze that happens in a law office - I'm wondering if this 'happens' really says what I want it to mean (sorry for my pesky questions but I simply have to know ;- ) ) What I wanted it to mean was that the blaze has taken place/took place before an owner got to his office... and I guess that if I say 'happens' this would mean that the fire is still going on...

hope I expressed everything not too blurry

Clive · Answer

Hi,

You've written that I should use 'the' if I expect you to know the book... but what if I give the title? I mean, let's suppose that the book I'm telling you about is unknown to you, then I would use "a book" right? but what if I give the full title? like somewhere here above in one of my previous posts? A title is like a proper name. Show me a sentence to comment on, please.

And the second one... you've written that instead of 'has happend' it's better to use simply 'happens' ... I've tried to put 'happens' and that's how my sentence looks now:

everything takes place after a blaze that happens in a law office - I'm wondering if this 'happens' really says what I want it to mean (sorry for my pesky questions but I simply have to know ;- ) ) What I wanted it to mean was that the blaze has taken place/took place before an owner got to his office... and I guess that if I say 'happens' this would mean that the fire is still going on... Don't worry, it's OK. When we tell a brief story, we often just put everything in Simple Present tense.

Everything takes place after a blaze that happens in a law office. The office burns down. The owner arrives and says 'Oh, my ***!'. etc.

Clive

garbagemen's softball team <shock!>

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