Law to British People

This one has a historical background:

Brazil had slavery till May 13th 1888, when slavery was forbidden by the Aurea Law, signed by Princess Isabel. The slave trade was really huge. The British Kingdom wasn't happy with the Portuguese and Dutch slaves trading from Africa to the Brazilian Empire. So, the British Parlament approved the "Bill Aberdeen Law". This law allowed the Royal Navy to sink slave trade ships coming from Africa heading to Brazil.

So, how many ships were attacked by the Royal Navy ??? Nobody knows. There are no historic registers of how many ships were attacked.

When we say "it's a law to British People" we mean something exist but no one cares about. Do you have something like this in USA ???

Like a dog eating mango

All my friends who have dogs always ask me to not give them chocolates. I had a dog when I was a kid and once, I gave him chocolate. It made him felt really sick. That's why he hated till the end of his life. Lesson: chocolates make people happy, not dogs !!!

Well, what chocolates, mango and dogs have in commom ??? Well, it's bad to give chocolates to dogs. But in Brazil, when you say someone looks like a dog eating mango, you mean his/her is really ugly, kind of nature forgot about him/her. Yeah, plastic surgery is waiste of time, money and the doctor's skills.

I've never seen a dog eating mango. Once, I got an e-mail from a friend that has a photoshop work: a dog eating mango. It was really ugly, but I don't know what made it ugly: the dog eating mango or the crappy photoshop work.

So, how do I say a person is really ugly "like a dog eating mango" american way ???

Airplane and Grape

Believe, if you call a woman in Brazil Airplane or Grape, you are saying she's beautiful. But what are the expressions and slang for beautiful woman in USA ???

Two things made me write this post: a brazilian playboy magazine cover and an ad a friend of mine created in Brazil for haircolor tint.

Playboy: Brazilian airline Varig almost went bankrupsy. A lot of people lost their jobs. So, Playboy magazine in Brazil selected 3 stewardesses who got fired. And the photo shoot title was: Varig's airplanes. When I was talking to friends about this photo shoot, many didn't understand why the girls were called airplanes. I thought they would understand because of a movie: Miss Congeniality. Let me be more specific: In this movie, Sandra Bullock plays a FBI agent, an ungly one. To solute a case, she has to get in undercovered in a beauty contest. Michael Kaine plays a beauty consultant who makes the miracle: the ugly agent turns to a beautiful contester. Before she goes to the contest, all the makeover was made in an airport hangar. When the job is done, you see her totally gorgeous, walking out the hangar like an airplane. I remember my friend Alfredo saying "here comes the airplane".

I asked to a couple of girls if I called them airplane what I would mean. The answer: fat. So, in portuguese, it means beautiful, gorgeous ... and in USA it means fat ??? In both cases make sense. Airplanes are big and heavy. But they are beautiful, pure engineering art. Airplanes are curvy, like gorgeous womem. And when they walk in a room they exhale their beauty and charm like the power that come out form the airplane's engines when they are taking of. That's a beautiful scene.

Grape: I have a friend who work in an advertising agency that has a cosmetic company as a client. They lauched a new colorhair tint that has grape seeds on the formula, what is supposed to be good for women's hair. And the ad headline says: If someone screams "beautiful", it means he liked the color. But if he says "you are a grape", it means he knows about haircolor tints.

So, what grape and women have in commom ??? Grapes are smooth like women's skin: it's amazing to touch. And grapes are sweet as women's kisses and their touch ...

No matter how we say, but women, you always deserve the best !!!

Piece of Cake

I think this is the first idiom I learned in english. I thought "Piece of Cake" was just a piece of cake. But it means something easy. Why ??? It's easy to eat a piece of cake, but how about bake it ???

I ask how the person who started to say "Piece of Cake" was doing. Problaby having some cake, right ??? Well, Lord Sandwich had this amazing idea: put steak between two slices of bread. Why ??? Because his hand was getting greased from eating steak with his bare hands. besides, it made his cards sticky. Piece of cake, right ??? I bet if the guy who "invented" piece of cake were Lord Sandwich, how would it be ??? Piece of Steak ??? Or Piece of Card ???

How about people who are always on diets ??? It's not "piece of cake" to stay away from a real piece of cake. Unless things for those are "piece of cake with no sugar" !!!

I'm hungry, so, who wants a piece of ... pie ???